Rune was sitting on a high tree and was looking down at the cave’s entrance. Hecate and Rena were bickering at the bottom of the tree and Rune ws trying to ignore them. He noticed that there were eight skeletal guards. Six were Skeletons of Majin and two Minotaur Skeletons.

Rune climbed down from his perch and landed on the floor in between Hecate and Rena. They stopped their arguments as soon as Rune was in front of them.

“What about the other five Skeleton Majins?”

The trio sneaked up to the entrance and Rune readied his chains. Then, in a single instance, chains sprang from the bushes and pulled together five Skeleton Majins. Rune also chucked his trident at a Minotaur Skeleton and it blew up. In the next moment, Rune punched the last Minotaur and it exploded into bones and debris.

Rena sneaked up to the last Skeleton and started attacking it with the two small scythes or kamas. They were made of Water magic crystals and modified to make blood flood out of cuts faster. Basically, if the creature attacked had blood, it would die of blood loss faster.

She ran up to the skeleton and slashed at it. The Skeleton blocked with its buckler and swung with the shortsword in its other hand. Rena dodged the swing and tried to attack again, but the Skeleton blocked and countered again.

Rena used a different technique and swung each kama separately and, after a few more attacks, the Skeleton lost its head and it was defeated.

“I did it!!! Did you see?!”

“What?”

Rune let out a Skeleton from the chains and had Rena fight it. Eventually, she became level 3 and gained [Single Strike].

Rena finished the sixth Skeleton Majin and was now sitting on the ground. Sh was tired from fighting six in a row, but the trio had to move onward to kill Belphegor. For now, they still had six days left to kill five more and they were moving at a great pace.

After a short rest, the three of them tread on into the cavern. Inside, there were more Skeletons of Majin, Gnolls, and Minotaurs. Rune had Rena defeat the Skeleton Majin and several Gnolls. Rune took care of the Minotaurs and Hecate was just walking behind them leisurely.

An hour passed before they came to a door. It was more like a large circle on the wall. As soon as they came closer, the door opened and they could see a Dragon. The only problem as that this dragon was undead and made out of bones, a dragolich. It roared as it rattled its bones.

Hecate and Rena were slowly moving backwards as the Dragolich advanced towards them.. The Dragolich drew back its head and breathed out tremendously cold air around them, but Rune threw something into the air.

It was a shield that expanded as soon as it left his hand. It blocked the cold breath and retaliated with a fiery burst. The Dragolich moved quickly out of the fire’s way and the blast exploded the ceiling in a huge explosion. It turned to Rune.

As it turned towards him, it realized that he wasn’t where he was a few seconds ago and looked around. Rune was next to it tightening up several chains as the undead beast fell. Rune looked into it and saw several large, white crystals inside of its ribcage.

Rune walked through its bones as it collapsed and he started to shove the crystals into his storage. The Dragolich roared in anger as Rune stole its crystals and, after Rune was done, its eyes started to fade. It stopped moving and sunk into Rune’s storage.

Hecate and Rena were shivering as they thought that they were going to be killed. In fact, Rune actually cut out the source of its power which tainted the Dragon to become an undead. In most cases, nobody would be able to move the crystals and, even if they were stolen, they would have to go to another dimension to stop the false life of the Dragolich,

Behind the circular door, there was a throne that was floating on a ball that had some red lights over it. It was moving around the room with a humanoid on it. It seemed to be a female Majin that had two horns longer than regular Majin and had a furry, black tail. She had claws at the end of her tail that carried a green orb.

“Zzzz...Zzzz...Zzzz…”

It was sleeping in the chair as Rune approached. Suddenly, the tail moved as if it was its own entity and a bolt of green magic flew at Rune. Quickly, he cast [Earthen Shield] to block it. When it struck the wall of dirt, the dirt turned into a brown sludge that steamed.

Suddenly, the Majin awoke and looked around lazily. Soon, she focused her eyes on Rune and yawned. Then she started to speak while trying to stay awake.

“I, aaaaaahhhh, I am Belphegor’s candidate, Lafi. I just want to sleep now. Here.”

The tail dropped the green orb on the floor and Lafi fell asleep. The chair moved around the room and the tail was trying to grab the orb that was on the ground.

Rune picked up the orb and plopped it into his storage. Suddenly, a mist came out of Lafi and it formed into a black form with cat ears and had the body of a fat body. It had black feathers instead of fur and was slowly hovering towards Rune.

It stopped in front of him and yawned. Then it turned its green eyes at him and opened its jaws to speak.

“I am Belphegor, the Sin of Sloth. Give me that orb.”

Rune stabbed its face and it dispersed. Then he left the room and the two others followed him. Hecate turned to Rune as soon as they reached the entrance.

“I thought you were going to kill her. Why didn’t you?”

“What about sleeping people?”

Rena was now asking him a question as he was now her instructor. She noticed that Belphegor was sleeping as well as giving up.

“I don’t have to go in there, right? You can take care of this by yourself, right?”

Hecate was talking about the vast sea in front of them. The surrounding area was murky and dark and the water was deep. They could see some tails and spikes from the water around them. Rena and Hecate were definitely scared.

Hecate and Rena were staying on the beach nearby and had a small totem in between the two of them. The totem was in the shape of a small wolf. Rune had made a small charm that had Dreadful Aspect to spread bloodlust towards everyone except Rune, Rena, and Hecate. It also had the spell [Water Control] to automatically form a defensive barrier of water to defend against attacks, but it wasn’t too powerful.

Rune looked at the map in his hands and noticed that Leviathan’s candidate was somewhat offshore and he had to go a bit into the sea first until he could reach it. He placed the map into his storage and whatever else would be damaged by water in there as well.

He slowly crouched down and put his hands on grooved ice that he quickly formed under him. Then he kicked off the ground and sprinted to the position of the candidate’s lair. Under him, the sea became ice with grooves so that he could have traction.

With a full sprint, he ran forward and several sea monsters came up to meet him. There were serpents and large fish and even some squid-like beings, but, when they tried to intercept him, he chucked throwing knives with drain life enchantments in them and, when they died, he put them in his storage. He was basically a large hoarder now who randomly shoved whatever creature he killed into it.

At some point, he reached where he wanted to go and he stood on the ice. He looked behind him to see his path that was now broken and were like small icebergs. He turned to look down at the water in front of him and he hesitated to go in. He was not about to go into dark, murky inhabited waters without the proper tactics.

First, he took out the green orb he received from Lafi, the candidate of Sloth, and absorbed it. He heard a voice that kept yawning in his mind.

{You have gotten a, aaaahh, a third gem of the Demon King… I shall give you the power of Sloth… You now can paralyze anyone who is not expecting it or make them, aaaaahh, make them sleep… But now your corruption from the Demon King will increase…}

Still doesn’t affect me. Thank the gods for the random suit of armor in the forest, even if they didn’t put it there.

He took out a strange lantern shaped item that gave off a blindingly bright light and dropped it into the water. As it fell, he could see serpents moving around it and people-like shapes underwater. When it hit the bottom, he could see a large shadow that was larger than anything he had seen before. Rune guessed that that was either the guardian of the candidate, like how the Dragolich was the guardian for Lafi, or the candidate itself.

He thought that it was one or the other because he knew that Leviathan was a large aberration that could devour entire towns or villages. This information was given to him by Hecate while discussing this mysterious Sin of Envy.

Look at what you’ve done! You are making me enter evil looking, strange as heck water!! You leave me no choice but to end you!!!

Rune really didn’t like whatever was going on down there, but he did want to take the Leviathan candidate’s body. He mostly took the bodies because he found that they were usually made of special materials and had magic not found in the rest of Arborea. He also really wanted to make weapons and armor. Eventually, his goal was to make a school that he would run.

He quickly chucked four more lantern far around him, then he did a pencil dive and dropped into the water. Some monsters attacked him, but he gripped their throats or bodies and crushed them in his grasp. When he reached the bottom, he heard a voice in his head speaking to him.

Suddenly, hundred of creatures rushed Rune. There were multiple serpents and large crabs and even some small piranha-like fish attacking him. Rune just used a magic he got from Iram, [Ice Age], and froze the water around the monsters. They floated to the surface, dead as their blood vessels froze in them.

Rune turned to look at the monsters dying as their eyes rolled up into their heads. He could see some frozen blood particles around him. Then he turned to the gargantuan beast in front of him.

Leviathan was at least as long as a battleship from Earth with dark blue scales covering the top of him and light blue scales covering his stomach. It’s face was like a trapezoid with the top being wider than the bottom. Its maw carried hundreds of large fangs and its eyes were a cold white. It had six arms with four claws on each. It looked like a large humanoid, but, instead of legs, it had six tentacles that ended in strange fins.

It looked at him with curiosity and pity as it believed that he would soon die. When it saw that its minions died in a single attack, he became frustrated and irritated. Then he swiped at Rune with a paw.

It struck Rune who was not able to move well underwater. It struck him and he was flung back into a rock pillar coming out from the ground. With the lanterns, Rune could see that the only enemy left was now just Leviathan.

It roared at him and Rune could see a ripple through the water. Rune tried to pull out his shield, which, due to his poor naming sense, he named Flare Guard, but he was driven further into the rocks.

Angered, Rune started to make a dome around him using [Water Control] and he started to run at Leviathan. He pulled out his Flare Guard and held it in front of him. Leviathan hit his shield and was instantly burned with fire.

The fire wouldn't be put out due to Rune using [Water Control] to constantly form a small oxygen barrier around the fire. Everytime Rune made a dome of air, it was filled with the oxygen and hydrogen that the water used to contain. This was because he used his magic to turn the water into the gases that made it up. However, he could only break it up and not produce water out of thin air unless there was moisture.

It turned out that Leviathan’s body was flammable as long as there was no water in it. Soon enough, all of its body was burning and it was screaming in pain. Rune then created a huge dome over himself and the aberration and pulled out his scythe.

Rune ran up to the burning colossus and drove his scythe into its head. It exploded and the body fell. Rune put out the fire by drenching it with water and then put the body into his storage. Rune noticed a blue orb in the area where Leviathan was swimming. He quickly absorbed it without hesitation.

{You have gotten a fourth gem of the Demon King… I shall give you the power of Envy… You now can send out a fierce bloodlust and crush enemies who are weaker than you… But now your corruption from the Demon King will increase…}

To get himself back to the surface quickly, he took out a teleportation stone. He absorbed it and gained a new skill, [Teleportation].

This skill was definitely inferior to Lisbeth’s [Teleportation] and was only able to go to landmarks and party members. Luckily, he was in a party with Rena who was gaining xp at a 1:99 rate where Rena was the 99%.

Hecate was lying in the moonlight on a blanket. She was tired and wanted to eat some food as it was already midday. Rena was quietly sleeping in a curled up ball. She was likely dreaming of fancy things like mansions and steak.

Suddenly, Rena heard Hecate make a surprised voice and she woke up suddenly. She moved her hand to her dual kamas when she noticed the dark armor in front of her.

“That was quick! About 10 minutes or so? That was faster than last time!”

Rune wasn’t lying when he said that he could wipe out an army because his level became level 18. He gained more weapons and supplies and even gathered over a hundred corpses in his storage.