Upon reaching Level 100, he'd gain his first pair of wings which would stick with him, from the Master, through the Grandmaster, Epic, Legendary, Sovereign and finally Transcendent Realms.
Above that, the number of wings would increase.
Anyway, right now, Xaren was unranked, and to leave this world and be taken to somewhere better where they'd actually consider giving him even advanced fighting training, he needed to become 'Low-Rank'.
'For now, I need to become a Gold Realm.'
Each Existence Realm had three stages, Inferior, Intermediate and Superior.
When one entered a Realm, one started from Inferior and when one reached the Superior stage, one needed to get to the next realm to continue levelling up.
The Bronze, Silver and Gold realms were often called the starter realms, and right now, Xaren was a Superior Silver Realm.
He estimated that by Level 70, he'd need to become an Inferior Gold to progress any further.
When most people reach the peak of their Existence Level stages, they face walls and become unable to level up.
If the peak of a stage could be likened to some sort of barrier that prevented the person's power from going to the next stage, it could be broken forcefully by absorbing so much power that the barrier would not be able to take it anymore and end up breaking.
But until that is done, one cannot level up.
'As a demon, I guess it'd be souls, then.
Souls or I'd use the method I used previously to absorb energy and use it to break the barrier.'
Entering the Gold realm wasn't a challenge from Xaren's perspective; getting to the Master realm, however, could be a herculean task.
Xaren remembered the stress he previously went through to enter the Master realm and sighed.
'This body is a High-Demon, it should be a lot easier for me to do so this time.'
He certainly hoped he wouldn't need to spend months at Level 99 again.
Xaren had this thought as he headed towards the place where the unranked demons were congregating, and he felt some rather unpleasant gazes coming from the Low-Ranked demons supervising them.
Tracing their gazes, he noticed they were more focused on the Runeblade he was with than on him.
Low-Rank demons were Level 100-699, and for these Low-Rank demons still below Level 200, Xaren's Runeblade was a weapon that was very useful to them.
Some wanted to bully Xaren for it, but they remembered seeing Floch and that other demoness with him earlier and thought that they had their eyes on Xaren, as such, they held themselves back out of fear of pissing off a Mid-Rank.
Not knowing why they just stared at him without trying anything, Xaren followed the unranked demons to the wooden huts and stone buildings that served as their barracks.
As a performance perk, he was assigned a hut for himself and didn't need to share it with four other demons.
Xaren's level 65 body did give him superhuman strength, but he was still a bit exhausted after the day's battle so he didn't take too long to sleep.
Years of fighting in his previous life had allowed him to possess the ability to sleep with one eye open, but perhaps his mental fatigue had accumulated over weeks without proper sleep in the Abyss, and he soon fell into a deep sleep.
When he awakened, it was barely 5 am and within a few minutes, the Low-Rank demons blared a siren to wake the unranked demons up.
They were congregated in the ruins of the previous day's battles, and there, the Mid-Rank demons explained that for this day, only the unranked would be fighting.
The goal of the battle was to recover territory that had been lost to the elves when the last batch of unranked demons failed to protect it, so they, alongside that batch of unranked were going to fight for it.
Apparently, the Low and Mid-rank demons were going to be present, but only to keep the stronger elves in check and kill anyone above Level 100 who tried to join the battle. The demons were very serious about letting only the unranked fight.
'So, we're the reinforcements.'
Xaren thought this as they had their breakfast—some meat and water—distributed for them before the High-Rank demon from the previous day showed up again and cast the Spatial Gate magic that would send them to the battlefield.
◇ ◇ ◇
Leading the troop with Xaren was a burly fire demon who looked so big, that Xaren wondered if he was really unranked.
"I'm Langa! I'm your Captain!"
This demon was armoured and had a helmet and a round shield at his back. He wielded a long sword and Xaren was genuinely curious what level this demon was at.
There were only ten 'Captains' among the unranked demons, and each one was outfitted with armour and weapons of clearly higher quality.
Xaren would have been picked as a Captain as well, but the Captains were selected during the time he was talking with Floch so they picked someone else instead.
'Compared to yesterday, a good number of the unranked have actual armour, even if it's only partial.'
Xaren made this observation as Langa explained their objective, pretty much just repeating the words the higher-ranked demons had said earlier.
"The front line has already started attacking. We will descend in the middle of the battlefield."
It was a similar situation to the previous day where they were thrust right into the ongoing battle.
After saying this, Langa beat his chest and added, "I will always be at the front. Just follow me."
With that, the sound of trumpets was heard and the demons charged through the spatial gate behind Langa.
"Follow me!"
"Uoo!"
"Let's go!"
"Souls!!"
"Kill elves!!"
"Tear their long ears!!!"
Xaren heard the battle cries that almost made him laugh as he sprinted toward the spatial gate.
As he passed through it, cold air filled his lungs, and he looked up to see an expanse of white plains marred by black smoke and blood splatters. The battlefield was a grim sight.
"Charge!!"
Langa's voice rang out as he filled his sword with demonic energy, hacking and slashing through elves with ruthless efficiency, beheading them in a single strike.
'Oh, this guy seems strong.'
Xaren honestly thought that.
But it was also only for a moment.
"GROOARRR!!"
A thunderous roar reverberated through the air, shaking the ground beneath them. The earth erupted as an enormous humanoid creature, hidden underground, burst forth.
The Lesser Giant was about five meters tall, and despite its massive size, it moved with alarming speed.
Langa, leading the charge, barely had time to raise his shield. The giant's sword, however, was faster, cleaving Langa's body in two with a single, brutal strike.
In mere seconds, the demons around Langa were reduced to nothing more than mangled remains as the giant fully emerged from the ground, roaring once more.
'Damn, one hit K.O!'
Xaren internally exclaimed, right before he made eye contact with the giant. Silence reigned for a split second, and then the giant threw its body at Xaren.
There was no way to stop its charge. Xaren knew that if the giant's sword—a weapon wielded by a race with inherently high strength—reached him, it would be the end. He quickly lightened his body with gravity magic and leapt to the side.
The Lesser Giant's sword crashed down, slicing the demon behind Xaren clean in two. The giant's eyes, however, remained fixated on Xaren, and there was a new intensity in them.
Xaren had dodged an attack that even Langa who was their leader couldn't escape.
The giant turned and swung his blade, at a low height, aiming to sever Xaren's upper body but Xaren's lightened body enabled him to jump high enough to avoid it, before kicking off the blade and using the momentum to dash toward his towering opponent.
'Fire Magic: Weapon Infusion.'
Black flames engulfed Xaren's sword as he swung it at the giant's thigh, eliciting a roar of pain from the hulking creature.
'Damn, the magic conductivity of this weapon is nice.'
Xaren noted, satisfaction creeping into his thoughts. He swiftly jumped back, narrowly evading the giant's retaliatory slash and as soon as his feet touched the ground, he leapt to the side again, dodging the giant's follow-up overhead strike that left a deep fissure in the earth.