Zagronan walked into the arena with his sword, armor, and shield.
In the days before, Rachel calculated a few times and recommended to him to buy more spell crystals and also a shield. Zagronan again sold pills and did so.
Looking at his opponent, he understood why Rachel was worried.
Horn was a huge demon with blue skin, standing 6 meters tall and extremely muscular.
Horn was a descendant of the demon king of Rage, and despite her name, she had no horns.
She looked humanoid and was wearing little armor or clothing.
With a mace the same size as her, she looked very terrifying.
"This is ridiculous! How is she rank 1?" Zagronan began to get worried.
With a bang, the battle started.
Horn directly activated her ability, 'Scare Away,' deactivating all of Zagronan's abilities, including his spellcasting ability.
Then she dashed toward him with a speed barely believable for someone rank 1.
Zagronan even lacked the time to properly take up his shield, having no choice but to use a spell crystal called "Rock Shield."
Spell crystals could be activated immediately at no cost; for this reason, they were priceless in battles.
The huge mace hit the stone shield and smashed it upon contact, but a short delay allowed Zagronan to bring up his shield to defend.
The mace landed on his circular shield, and he was sent flying!
"Is this really a demon and not a monster?" Zagronan screamed in his mind.
Monsters are enormous and are unable to cast spells. Instead, they have great physical strength. But Horn's strength was stronger even compared to the monsters.
Zagronan landed on the ground with a very sore arm.
Horn dashed to his side again without giving him the chance to recover.
With no choice, he again used another spell crystal, "Freeze."
Horn was momentarily frozen, but she broke the spell quickly and struck him with the mace again.
Zagronan was ready, so once again, with the hit, he was sent flying with an even sorer arm.
"This cannot go on like this," he thought.
He used a "Razor Blade" spell and hit Horn on the leg in an attempt to lower her speed.
The spell cut deep, and a lot of blood came out, but it didn't seem to affect her speed much. She again arrived before him with a speed nearly comparable to rank 2.
"Rock Shield," Zagronan was again forced to use a spell crystal.
The mace hit, and the rock shield shattered. It continued and connected to Zagronan's shield again, this time really breaking his arm!
He wasn't sent flying this time, just pressed to the ground.
Horn didn't give him time, attacking with the mace again.
Zagronan gritted his teeth, used three "Rock Shield" spell crystals in a row, and then slashed with his sword!
The mace hit the rock shields; it smashed two, but it was barely stopped when it hit the third one.
Zagronan's sword, however, cut deep and got stuck!
"Bone Cutter!" Zagronan used the sword's special ability.
The sword cut even deeper, managing to damage her leg bone.
Then, the mace came again.
Zagronan had only one opportunity to use one Rock Shield.
The shield shattered in the face of the mace; the mace then fell on the shield Zagronan held with his broken arm.
The impact sent him flying with terrible pain.
His left arm bone shattered into countless pieces, wholly limp and disabled!
But this time, Horn's speed was much slower, so he managed to keep his distance.
He took out the crossbow and started shooting.
The arrows hit her and stuck in her body one after the other.
Horn, however, was unfazed, standing in her place without moving.
Zagronan used the opportunity and hit her with the arrow all over her body, including her eyes and head.
These arrows were all rank 1; even one might kill a normal rank 1 demon!
"Why isn't it working?" Zagronan asked Rachel.
Rachel was clueless.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa," Horn screamed, and the whole arena shook.
Two huge horns came out of her head, and at the same time, All the arrows came out of her body, and she completely healed.
She dashed and appeared in front of him at a speed he couldn't even see.
Before the mace fell, he only had time to use the best defensive spell he had bought.
"Steel Shield."
An extremely thick shield made of steel appeared between him and the mace.
Upon impact, the shield shattered to pieces, but it took most of the power of the mace so that when it hit Zagronan's shield held with his right hand, it didn't directly kill him.
He was sent flying, his right arm reduced to pieces, every bone in his body broken.
Demons usually don't lose consciousness no matter how severe the pain. Zagronan would have fallen into a deep coma if he were human.
"Recovery," he used the rank 1 spell crystal of recovery.
But the speed of healing was very slow.
He used fireballs and other offensive spell crystals, but they were ineffective against Horn.
"So this is where I die!" he thought, not even able to smile bitterly.
"What should I do?" Rachel thought.
She didn't have any skills that were directly useful in battles.
"No, wait, I can do something," she thought, then started using 'Dive in Time,' quickly turning it off and repeating this process.
She was trying to create ripples and, eventually, tides in the river of time.
This could bring disaster in normal circumstances, but now, Zagronan was already in the worst possible situation, so any change was welcome.
Horn approached slowly and soon reached Zagronan.
She brought the mace up, ready to deal the final blow.
But then, a mutation happened.
The river of time around Rachel became incredibly chaotic, with huge tides everywhere, bringing up a lot of water from the depths of the river of time to the surface.
Something very shiny emerged from the depths.
With that shiny thing out, the river finally calmed down, with a lot of ice appearing on the surface.
The entire city of Hotblood momentarily froze and then started moving again.
Horn brought down her mace with all her strength, planning to turn Zagronan into a meat sauce.
"Freeze," a man's voice echoed.
Horn Froz mid-action.
The man looked exactly like a human.
"I think I died? Why am I alive?" he thought.
He was the Demon King of Cold.
Originally a mage, he was one of the first that reached rank 9, and the first mage that managed to transform into a demon.
Now, for some reason, he had come back to life.
He looked around for a moment and gazed at the nine moons.
"Those guys are still there! Wait, why are there nine?" he thought, then disappeared.
Horn remained frozen.
Zagronan didn't know what had happened, but he would not sit and wait for death.
He used every healing spell crystal he had, and after a few minutes, he recovered to the point where he could take out rank 3 healing pills.
After taking the rank 3 healing pills, his situation improved rapidly.
Soon, he was able to stand.
He took out his sword and slashed at Horn's neck.
Her whole body shattered into ice pieces!
It was completely unrecognizable as being made of flesh and blood.
"So I live!" Zagronan exclaimed, exhausted.
He didn't think of anything, leaving the arena without collecting the ice pieces.
...
After a few days, Zagronan recovered mentally and began talking with Rachel.
"Why didn't you calculate it? I almost died!" he asked.
"That final ability of hers never showed up in my predictions. I only knew about her ability to disable other abilities! I think it's because there were special conditions for that 'rage' to be activated.," she said.
"Your predictions are useless if they are this inaccurate," he replied.
Rachel was unable to refute, so she remained silent.
"Anyway, now it's time for us to go and ask for something from Iggad." He stood up and left the room.
...
Zagronan was in a room, with Elizabeth in a corner, waiting for the baron to arrive.
After a while, the baron entered through a gigantic door. "Congratulations!" the baron said.
"I want to become a Baron!" Zagronan said without delay.
Iggad smiled from ear to ear and said, "I cannot do it. As you know, the conditions are set by the Demon Kings."
Zagronan sighed. It was as Rachel had predicted. He said, "Give me a rank 7 'Jump Rank'!"
Iggad replied, "Jump Rank is very precious. Do you think I have it?"
"Then why do you say 'ask me anything' if you are so poor?" Zagronan said.
Iggad replied, "It's not that I'm poor; it's just that you ask for too much! I can give you a rank 4 'Jump Rank' or anything of equal value. Choose wisely."
Zagronan sighed and said, "Rank 5 'Jump Rank'!"
Iggad took out his legos from the boxes and said, "I won't repeat myself."
After much bargaining, Iggad didn't budge, and Zagronan was forced to accept the rank 4 'Jump Rank.'
"You were supposed to help me reach rank 4," Zagronan said, dissatisfied.
Iggad took two things.
"This is the bloodline of a rank 4 royal demon from the Tanoth bloodline. With this, you can reach rank 4 without any problem!"
"And this is a Rank 4 Bloodline Absorption Pill, which can help you absorb that,"
"After this, you are my demon general and must do whatever I say, "Iggad said.
Zagronan took the bottle carefully and examined it. It was not large, just a few drops.
"Is this enough?" he asked.
"That is purified bloodline, much more efficient to use than what you usually do. Now go away; I'm going to play with Legos," Iggad smiled like a child.
Zagronan took everything and left.
...
He returned to his room and took out the rank 4 'Jump Rank.' It was shaped like a regular white pill, without any color or anything special.
One might see it on the side of the road and not notice anything special about it.
"Is it fake?" Zagronan asked.
"Wait a few days; I'm going to predict it," she said.
Zagronan used the "Wings" pill and waited for Rachel to predict.
...
The next day, Rachel used 'Dive in Time' and looked at the reflection of the Original Duty.
She saw a reflection of Zagronan shining brightly, with a small explanation that clarified he had reached rank 4.
"So it's real! I'm going to get my next skill!" she got excited.
Rachel predicted for a few more days and finally made sure that 'Jump Rank' was not fake.
...
Zagronan was sitting in his room with 'Jump Rank' in his hand. The difference between rank 4 and 3 is tremendous.
Before rank 4, mages, demons, and gods directly use magic energy, be it dark element, light element, or mana, but after rank 4, 'way' will always be added to their magical energy.
'Way' is the first step on a long road of specialization. Zagronan is a demon from the bloodline of Tanoth, the god of wisdom.
His 'way' is predetermined to be the 'Wisdom' way.
He took out the rank 4 'Bloodline Absorption' pill and the bottle of bloodline.
"Are you sure it's enough?" he asked Rachel.
"Yes, in my calculations, you successfully reach rank 4," she said.
He took a deep breath and swallowed the 'Jump Rank.'
Then, immediately, he took the rank 4 'Bloodline Absorption' pill along with the few drops of blood in the bottle.
He felt a great heat in his stomach.
It was the bloodline, which was barely contained with the 'Bloodline Absorption' pill. Still, with only rank 1, it is only a matter of time before he explodes.
Suddenly, his rank jumped to two without any hindrance.
The pressure of the bloodline alleviated significantly.
He still concentrated as the bloodline pressure increased again, but just as he was about to explode, his rank jumped again, this time to 3!
He kept focus. The bloodline pressure increased again, and just as he reached his limit, his rank jumped again, finally reaching rank 4!
The bloodline pressure was alleviated entirely.
"Finally! I'm finally a rank 4 royal demon and a demon general!" he laughed.
Becoming a demon general had been his aim for a long time.
"Be careful, concentrate, and consolidate your rank with pills."
Then, Rachel looked at the new skills she had acquired!