In a forest north of the central village.
"where are all the bad guys when you need them" Dimitri sighed looking up into the cloudy sky.
Today had been a particularly disappointing day. he hadn't met a single demon in this 'demon infested' forest, as proclaimed by the village elders.
Dimitri had an odd method of growing in strenth. Instead of ordinary cultivation he had to simply fight in a life or death battle with a stronger opponent, this would push his power to grow faster than anyone else.
However, ever since a month ago the demons he used to fight with in this forest became too weak for him with his monstrous growth. He couldn't find any opponent worth fighting anymore.
"Is this the kid that you all continuously bother me about?" a deep voice sounded from in the forest.
Dimitri paid it no attention, in fact he had already sensed that there were some people... eh, demons, heading in his direction but chose to ignored it.
"My lord, I beg thee not to underestimate this child" another voice, probably belonging to an older demon sounded.
"I'll deal with this alone, take all your subordinates and return to the camp!" the deep voiced demon responded, sounding slightly more irritated now.
"Yes my lord!" the older demon shouted, now sounding a lot more assured.
WHOOSH!
the larged group of demons vanished on the spot leaving only one behind.
Dimitri finally looked in the direction of the remaining demon.
The remaining demon looked at Dimitri as well but already looked disinterested in the child.
"Kid whats your name?" the demon asked.
"Whats yours?" Dimitri answered with a question of his own.
"I am Mercury. you should feel honored to even know my name" Mercury looked down at Dimitri with a look filled with arrogance.
"eh, okay" Dimitri had already covered himself with a layer of dark blue lightning.
SWOOSH!
Dimitri vanished from where he previously stood, appearing behind Mercury in an instant. a smile crept up on Mercury's face.
PA!
Mercury stopped Dimitri's fist with nothing but his index finger. "I can see why you gave the other demons a little trouble, but i'm not the same as them"
Dimitri's face didn't have as much surprise as Mercury had expected.
"Well i'm not fighting seriously yet you see" Dimitri smiled as he withdrew his hand.
SZZZZ!
Dimitri's lighting flickering around him changed from blue to red making all the clouds above him audibly rumble.
Dimitri smirked and dashed forward now leaving behind an afterimage everywhere. Mercury's expression suddenly turned grave realising the sudden change in power.
Everytime Dimitri made a breakthrough in his power by fighting a stronger opponent, he would gain a new colour of lightning that would increase his power.
Currently he held four colours. the first and weakest being blue and his fourth and strongest being red.
Dimitri understood the danger and power of Mercury and thus went all out from the start.
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Four hours later, the forest now no longer seemed majestic but rather held similarities to hell. The trees were either on fire or were now ashes.
The flames on the trees were black in colour, This was the power of Mercury. He was able to manipulate the darkness and create a unique dark flame.
However currently, Mercury's appearance was unrecognizable. He had lost most of the clothing on his body and the ones remaining were burnt and in pieces.
His face had the look of a malnourished person, revealing his cheek bones and in some places, even his skeleton. Mercury was lying on the ground leaning against a burning tree.
Dimitri was in a better condition, but not without injuries.
However Dimitri's current expression was of happiness. The colour of his lightning of now a dazzling white. he had unlocked this new lightning during the fight.
With his red lightning, Mercury was still slightly stronger than he was. This pushed him to achieve this new power. With the white lightning, the battle was easily won for him, In fact it was too easy.
"Yes!.. a whole damn year later and I finally got a new colour!!" Dimitri was ecstatic. This meant that all he had to keep doing was find more powerful opponents and his power could grow for ever!
He could even become an immortal in a decade, maybe even less. Because of this power of his he never had to cultivate, in fact his cultivation was still only in the first tier. This lightning power was a completely seperate... 'thing?' from his cultivation.
Dimitri slowly limped back to his village. He couldn't even walk straight after expending so much of his power.
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"Where the hell have you been?!" one of the male elders of the orphanage was upset at Dimitri for sneaking out and returning so late at night. "And why do you look so tired".
"Relax Olsen, he must've been bored just sitting around here all day" one of female workers in the orphanage said trying to calm the elder down.
"Dimitri, you're lucky you came back when you did. The guards found the corpse of the actual demon king!" the elder said enthusiastically.
"What?!... the demon king died?!... and in our village?!" the female worker was visibly shocked. The demon king was the strongest existence on the planet, if not for the arrays all over human territory, the demon king could wipe out every human even without the other demons.
"Not in the village. He died in the northern forest" Olsen corrected her. "The knights from the central continent will be coming tomorrow to collect his corpse and reward our village".
The next day, At the front gate of the village. All the villagers had gathered there and surrounded the team of knights sent by the central continent.
"The king wishes to reward this village for the death of the demon king" a tall brawny man spoke. "Although the village is not directly responsible for his death and the expert remains to be found, the king still wishes to reward this village"
The knight signalled to one of the female knights to step forward. She was shorter than he was and had black shoulder length hair. "The king graciously rewards this village with 1000 gold coins in construction and charity fees" the woman said sternly.
"Ai, the king is too generous to our small village" the village leader looked rather satisfied with that amount, or rather, he was too afraid to complain.
"If anyone knows who this expert is, let him know that the king would like to like to personally reward him for killing the demon king, Mercury" the woman finished.
'Mercury? where did I hear this name?' Dimitri was deep in thought when he had finally realized who Mercury was.
'That man was the demon king?!... but that would mean that I just defeated the strongest being on this planet!. Who am I supposed to fight to get stronger now?'
Dimitri's strength required him to fight opponents stronger than him, with no more stronger opponents he could never grow stronger.
His strength would remain the same until he found a stronger opponent. At this moment Dimitri realized that his path to the immortal realm would be a lot more difficult.