Chapter 3: Beelzebub's Fire Breath (1)
"I just need to find my maids…."
Since everything has been reset, finding his loyal servants was David's easiest solution to his predicament. Their strength and origins alone should be able to keep him safe in this perilous world: if need be, David would be able to combine his fame and future potential with his maids' statuses to find allies.
He didn't want to consort with others, but his situation didn't allow him for any caprices.
Well, right now, he was stranded, so David focused on matters at hand.
He opened his magic skill list and instantly muttered in a criticizing tone. "Seems like I have been too impatient with my judgment… can't blame me, though…."
Beelzebub's Magic List was filled with various types of nature, fire, and water skills. Every skill had various evolution paths related to the spiritual concept, which was closely related to ghosts. As a level one demon, David couldn't rely too much on a spiritual concept, except for his unique eyes to see ghosts.
He unlocked his first offensive skill on his new path.
[Beelzebub's Fire Breath(Legendary) - the user can breathe out a demon's fire.]
"Since I have unlimited mana, I can spit them endlessly. Should be a powerful weapon in this forest." David threw his eyes around, finding nothing other than dense trees and a blue sky.
Staying loyal to his prior thoughts, David expected even this seemingly gentle and calm forest to be a dwelling of monsters, waiting for naive and gullible humans or other races to step into their traps. The first thing David wanted to avoid was getting strangled in vines or roots after stepping outside the clearing.
Thus, armed with his first skill, David took careful first steps to glean some information, starting his new journey in a much different world than he could possibly expect.
He was utterly unaware of what had happened to him, after all.
-
Clothed in nothing but a rugged shirt and pants, with leathery boots encasing his feet, David cracked the branches beneath himself as he slowly advanced throughout the forest. His equipment was as pitiful as his skills and level, making him more cautious in a new environment.
Beelzebub didn't recognize this forest, too, so it added more weight to his burden.
The forest didn't help, either, for it was dense and dotted with sharp bushes. Tight and opaque branches blocked the sky, blanketing the woods in darkness, which was another hurdle for the demon. Fortunately, David had enough experience to not get lost in such a zone.
Using the wind flowing in between the trees, David followed its wake while keeping his vigilant senses on the highest alert. And before he noticed, David entered an adventurous state he'd developed in the game world, driving him keen on survival and getting all boons to himself.
This made him forget that he was no longer in a normal game in which he could respawn to take a second chance.
It was for the better, however.
'There it is… my first exp bag...' David whispered inwardly, exchanging eye contact with a snake coiled around a thick tree standing in his way.
The snake's greenish eyes had also noticed a human gazing at him. In those blackish eyes, the monster hadn't found any fear or regret upon stumbling on a threat. Instead, the human seemed to have a condescending light brimming in those hues, provoking the monster.
It was as though the darkness within those eyes prevailed, turning the shadows of the forest into his servant.
But how could it be? The human didn't have any battle equipment that locals here have been using to fend off monsters, perched as though naked. His presence reeked off weakness, but that could be a trap, just like those eyes looking down at him.
The snake hissed and coiled around the tree, slowly extending his head toward David.
His prey remained rooted on the ground — the monster let out his forked tongue again, getting no reaction whatsoever. This could be another ploy, and the snake's instincts kept alarming him to not take a rash action, but a low intelligence surely played a trick on this pitiful existence.
He became impatient after peering for too long into David's eyes.
He sent his head for Beelzebub's neck in a quick and nearly instant move, which would have taken many inexperienced humans by surprise. Sadly for the snake, David was on an utterly different level.
Even before the monster's greed took over him, David had already channeled his new skill, filling his lungs with warm and loud flames. His heart and ears drummed with howls of demonic fire!
His chest puffed too much for a slender guy like him, whose specialty was alchemy and magic, making him momentarily seem like a buffed warrior.
But as greenish flames left his lips, engulfing his master's opponent, David's chest slowly caved in to its regular form, all while the snake's thick and scaly frame had been reduced to ashes alongside the tree he had been wrapped around.
The monster didn't even have a chance to hear his last painful hisses as Beelzebub's flames roared louder than demons' hounds. Everyone who had heard those spawns at least once always brought means to silence those dogs upon their next leveling up on the demonic grounds.
[You have killed The Green Snake Lv. 12]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
David licked his lips before bringing his finger to them. "The range is exceptional… I didn't think it would be similar to a dragon's breath, but here we are… I might be able to make a laser-like breath in the future."
Such a thought tingled David's gaming senses to grind, level up, and evolve his skills and class… but as his flames spread across the forest, Beelzebub realized that he was actually in a much different game.
It became too real… or perhaps, his legendary flames were too much for a low-level forest. Nonetheless, the lack of a mini-map had been bothering David for quite some time now. Moreover, as he felt the refreshing sense of leveling up washing through him, David couldn't help but feel like all sensory options have been reset as well.
It meant that he would feel pain like residents…
"This game's reality is becoming more and more troublesome… I also briefly forgot that I am in a death game now."
Having said that, David lowered his gaze and set his eyes on the burnt tree, slightly getting troubled by thoughts that popped into his mind. His magic's might enabled him more than he had assumed before, and his unlimited mana allowed him to keep using that against his enemies, relieving Beelzebub a lot.
But what troubled him was how realistic a few things happened to be.
He didn't get any loot… his system didn't have inventory, either…
The absence of minimap had been a bother to David's eyes, too…
"Am I in the real world? Was my deepest desire to be in a real world of magic?" Beelzebub couldn't believe his ears, hanging in the forest like a lost man whose lips couldn't shut for some reason.
Luckily, he was on a good track to unveil the mysteries behind his deepest desire and on a good way to the first gathering of humans.