The piles are growing

Elena made her way towards their own store, knowing that Felicia is probably about to close it. Seeing her locking the back door, she stopped her. “Wait!”

Noticing her boss, Felicia let go of the key and bowed her head, “Good evening, Miss. You have earned quite a lot today too. I decided to order a safe from the money you earned. I apologize if you don’t like it and I’ll definitely pay it back. But considering the amount you earn, I found it a necessity. Your money is inside it this time too.”

Waving her hand, Elena said, “I know about it. You did well. I’ll give you some bonus at the end of this week, but I’ll withdraw most of the money when I give you a visit since I have a really good way to store it~ Do I need to leave some change?”

“No, Miss. I always take it home and back tomorrow. The amount you find in the safe is free to use. To be honest, at other stores, there was somebody who managed the income, turned some of it towards payments, manufacturing fees and such. But since Miss don’t have to do anything of the sort, I can take care of everything myself. I’ll just have to hope that I won’t be attacked so late in the evenings,” she replied with a smile, complaining at the same time.

“Haha, you are too roundabout, but fine. You can close at four p.m. from tomorrow onwards. It’s not like many people would come after five p.m. You can go home now. My panther will accompany you,” she said with a chuckle as Dred turned the corner.

“I’m not your panther…” he whispered when he passed by her.

“A-Are you sure? He is a little… scary,” Felicia muttered with a stiff face, visibly afraid of Dred.

“Yes. Get on, this is a once in a lifetime offer!” Elena pressed on. With much delay, she finally got onto Dred’s back. He turned his head towards Elena and showed a baleful look. Since he had to act as an ‘obedient panther’, he had no way to refuse. “Just tell him where to go!” Elena shouted after Felicia.

Audrey and Jake appeared behind her when they got out of sight. “You are evil. Dred will hold a grudge for this,” Jake remarked, shaking his head.

“Haha, he won’t. And friends are always there to fuck you up!” Elena replied, laughing loudly.

Entering the store, she counted the money. “A hundred and fifty-three gold coins! Adding it to our earnings from before, I think that we should be able to buy some really good armor!” she exclaimed when a guy appeared behind him. Gripping her waist, he raised her into the air and pressed her against the wall.

“Who the hell are you?” Audrey questioned him, holding her palm towards the man’s back. Using Dark Magic, Jake created a knife and pointed it towards the man’s back as he said, “Let go of her.”

Ignoring their words, the man kept looking into Elena’s eyes. He had a pair of long horns protruding from his forehead, and his spine ended in a blade-like, one and half a meter long tail. Just a swing of it could cause serious damage to anyone. He was about a hundred and ninety centimeters tall and he had a well-toned, lean but muscular body. He had black hair covering the top of his head and the same kind of shining green eyes as Elena.

His two centimeter long, pointy claws prickled Elena’s side, but they didn’t cause her any harm. “You dirty woman! I told you last time that I will take my words back and that I won’t bite you! I’ll do it now!” he exclaimed, surprising Audrey and Jake.

“No! Let go of me! Damn it, Dred! Why are you so strong?” Elena wailed in his grip, trying to get free. Turning her around, he leaned forward and bit into her right butt.

“Hiii! You bastard! I won’t forget this!” Elena shouted as her body stiffened up from the slight feeling of pain. After sucking out a bit of blood, he pulled back his head and put her on the ground. The wound healed in the next second, but Elena still found her butt sore.

“Why not my shoulder? I won’t even feel that. Grrr… I’ll definitely pay back for this!” she exclaimed, pointing at his face.

“Heh- I’m waiting for it!” he laughed upon hearing her threat.

“Dang it, there is a hole in my leggings too! Well, I can fix it easily…” she said as it regrew in a moment.

Placing her hands on her hips, she looked over Dred’s body from head to toe. “You look great! But…” pointing downward with a slightly red face, she continued, “you should get some clothes.”

“Oh, right. I need such things in this form,” he said as his shadow coiled around his body and turned into simple looking black clothes.

“Disregarding the fact that I just saw a male ass, WHAT THE FUCK?” Jake started with an unbothered face before suddenly screaming out.

“Shh-- My ears! Don’t scream into my ears, you idiot,” Audrey rebuked him, smacking the back of his head.

“Ah, I’m sorry. But look, Inspect!”

Name: Dred

Race: Devouring Panther (Legendary) /

Arch Fiend (Epic)

Level: 200

EXP: 345 / 72 400

Class: ShadowMoor (Exclusive)

Specialization: Stealth

Health: 5 500 000 / 5 500 000

Mana: Cosmological Constant

Titles: The Only One; Blood Drinker

Strength(+3% Demon): 1 152 043 (+34 561)

Vitality: 1 100 000

Agility: 1 130 910

Will: 86

Intelligence: 1 090 437

Wisdom(+3% Demon): 1 110 943 (+33 328)

Elemental Magic:

Fire Lv.80 (91%); Water Lv.81 (93%);

Wind Lv.83 (71%); Lightning Lv.75 (99%);

Nature Lv.83 (59%); Earth Lv.80 (47%);

Light Lv.67 (75%); Dark Lv.90 (41%);

Cosmological Constant: Lv.56 (76%)

Void Lv. 23 (37%); Eon Lv. 68 (65%)

Resistances:

Magical: 1 144 271

Physical: 593 302

Poison: 18 453 / 100 000

Passive:

Stamina: 2 693 745

Precision: 5 654 550

Skills/Spells:

Mana Control Lv. 68 (65%)

Sense Lv. 84 (69%)

Stealth: Lv. 93 (47%)

Shapeshift Lv. 42 (32%) (Bear; Wyvern; High-Demon)

Necromancy Lv. 70 (42%)

Racial Skills:

Devour Lv. 62 (26%)

Summon (Max Level)

Passive Skills:

Ambush Lv. 42 (91%)

Poison Lv. 26 (93%)

Stopping behind Audrey, Elena put chin on her shoulder and looked at Dred’s table. Since they were his close alleys, he let them look at everything.

“Oh? You can switch races and you’ve got a new racial skill. Try summoning something, quickly!” Elena urged him, finding it interesting. Turning around, Dred looked at the group of three. Seeing all of them looking at him with glimmering eyes, he sighed before raising his right hand.

Showing his palm, he explained, “As you can see, I have this pentagram on my palm. As long as I pour Mana into it, demons will appear. If I use the one on my left hand, stronger demons will appear, but I can’t summon more than three and once they die, I won’t be able to summon them for a whole day. Of course, they can go back themselves once they finished my orders. I can resummon them anytime that way.”

“Here is a weaker one and a stronger one!” he said as he poured his Mana into the pentagrams on both of his palms. A one and half a meter tall imp formed under his right hand, while a human sized, dark red skinned demon grew under his left hand.

Inspect, all of them thought at the same time.

Name: Male Imp

Race: Imp

Level: 100

Allegiance: Dred

Name: Unnamed

Race: Alp

Level: 140

Allegiance: Dred

“A hundred and forty?! Are you kidding me? This summoning is really good, but well, considering that we usually fight against stronger opponents, they are perfect for distraction. But if they are clever enough, then they could be very useful!” Elena exclaimed after reading their tables. Their strength was the same as a normal person at the hundred and fortieth level, meaning around four hundred thousand and eighty-seven points on each of their stats.

“Kick Elena’s leg,” Dred commanded the imp. Rushing over, he kicked into her leg and then ran back to its master. Not even bothering with his weak attack, Elena chuckled, “Why hold a grudge? Haha.”

“I’ll enlighten you. I’m not holding a grudge against you, but here is how it is! I’m not a pet or a mount. I’m letting you sit on my back since we are very close to each other. But imagine yourself walking on four legs, while some stranger is sitting on your back. It is humiliating. When you sit on my back, I always imagine ourselves as if I was carrying you on my back with a human body.”

“But when others sit on my back, I imagine myself as a man, crawling on the ground on all fours, carrying someone. Do you get the difference between those two? I’d be happy if you wouldn’t force me into doing such things from now on.”

Elena’s face turned sadder and sadder by each word he said. Stepping forward, her head hung, she hugged him, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think that you thought that deeply about this. I swear that I won’t do it anymore.”

Patting her head, he replied, “I’m glad to hear your words. Now, let’s see something harder. Fight against Jake to the death!”

“Huh?” Jake gave out a surprised sound upon seeing the Imp jumping towards his face, its ten centimeters long claws, ready to strike him. Raising his hand, Jake grabbed the Imp’s. The imp put its feet on Jake’s chest and pushed himself away. Landing on the ground after a somersault, he ran towards Jake’s legs. Seeing that it was fighting quite well, Dred called him back.

“Now… sneak behind one of the people here, steal a lock of their hair, and bring it back to me. Both of you,” he commanded the other demon too this time. The Imp ran towards Audrey. Grabbing a lock of her hair, he was about to tear it out when Audrey’s shadow spread out and devoured the Imp in a moment.

“I feel quite sad about our loss,” Jake joked, placing his hand on Audrey’s shoulder, showing a sad face.

“You people are terrible! He was just doing his duty!” Dred remarked, shaking his head.

The other demon bowed his head and left the building. “I’m curious what will happen if I go out,” Elena whispered, going towards the door. As she opened it, a hand thrust down from above, trying to grab her hair. Leaning her head to the side, the hand missed its target. “I’ve got you~” Elena said, thrusting her hand upward, catching the demon’s hand.

It used Nature Magic to grow a vine out of the ground. It coiled around her hands and the demon used its free hand to try to grab her hair for the second time. Seeing Elena breaking the vine in the next moment, it jumped off of the wall and ran back to Dred. Bowing his head, he said, “I’m sorry, Master. My target is too powerful. I’ll need preparations if I wish to succeed.”

“He talked!” Audrey exclaimed, her hand in front of her mouth.

“Yes, I can talk,” the demon replied, bowing his head.

“Why did you bow to her?” Dred asked with curiosity.

“Miss seems to be a friend of Master. I deeply apologize if I was wrong,” he replied.

“Are you afraid of death?” Dred pressed on with his questions. The demon’s face didn’t even do as much as a twitch. With a straight face, he replied, “I’m not. I’m born of your Mana. Once I die, it will dissolve, along with my consciousness, which was born from your knowledge. When you summon me again, I’ll be reborn. Death is but a fleeting state for me.”

“Good. You may leave now,” Dred nodded his head.

The demon dissolved and returned into Dred’s body in the form of Mana. “It seems like he will return to me unless he is killed. I also learned something new. When he is out of my body, a part of my Mana can’t be restored. If I didn’t have Cosmological Constant, it would be a big drawback for this skill,” Dred said, looking at his own palm.

“So the more Imp you summon, the less Mana you can use. Their level is lower by a hundred compared to yours and they aren’t too clever but can fight. Perfect for cannon fodder,” Elena concluded the matter, leaning on the doorway, her arms crossed in front of her chest. Having a strange feeling, Dred walked closer to Elena. After sniffing her hair, he hugged her body.

“Eh? What are you doing?” Elena asked with wide opened eyes.

“Strange. This body has some kind of reaction to you. Is this, lust?” he asked, stepping back and transforming into his Panther form. “The softness and the warmth of your body. Your curves, all of them felt appealing, whilst I don’t think anything about them in this form. Or to be more exact, I know that you have captivating looks, but I don’t feel anything in particular about it,” Dred pondered over his new experience.

“...”

“I don’t know what to say, to be honest. Should I feel offended or just ignore it or what?” Elena questioned Audrey, raising a brow.

Shrugging her shoulders, Audrey replied, “I don’t know. I guess you should just ignore it. Also, if we want to buy weapons, we should hurry up.”

“Ah! Damn it, I almost forgot about it!” Elena shouted, rushing out the door. When everyone left, Jake locked the door behind them and followed in their steps.