When Liam was about to enter the first layer, the orb informed him:

"The first layer was completely clean. There are no more demons at the moment."

He was surprised. It should have more than 10.000 demons in the first layer, but after more than 15 hours, it was completely clean.

The orb had already explained to him that each layer had a certain number of demons.

In the first layer, the exact number of demons was 20.000. In the second it was 40 thousand. In the third, 60 thousand. And so on. Each layer had a maximum limit of how many demons could enter, and once that limit was reached, a new demon could only come in 72 hours later. That's why it was possible to completely clean each layer.

"I must hurry."

He entered the first layer and went straight to the second layer. The demons were level 1 at level 7. Without hesitation, Liam began to hunt without mercy or pity.

Of course to level, it was only God himself, as it became increasingly difficult killing only lower-level demons.

...

Liam gritted his teeth as he used the blade of the katana to defend himself against a powerful cut of an ogre's ax. His feet sank a few inches into the dirt floor and he was pushed some 10 centimeters back.

His arms tingled with the force of the impact of that level 7 ogre, but with a force superior to him, a level 16 awakened.

[Demon War Ogre (Leader) - Level 7]

[HP: 1.342 / 3.000 | MP: 1.456 / 2.000]

The orb informed him that ogres had passive abilities that greatly increased their HP and MP, as well as being much stronger than humans, and all had the passive 'Herculean Strength' ability to increase Strength by 5 each leveling.

Feeling faint to face the ogre's next attack, Liam was forced to use his ace for the first time:

"Time Stopping." he whispered.

The demon, who was about ten feet tall, stopped moving and his attack stopped in mid-air as if a video was paused.

With no time to celebrate, Liam stepped aside and whispered,

"Haste." And so he increased his speed and without wasting time, he continued: "Slash."

In a blink of an eye, he passed the ogre cutting him and stopped 3 paces behind the ogre with his back to the demon.

The 3 seconds passed. Liam turned in time to see the ogre hitting the ground with tremendous force creating a mini crater and making it all around for about 10 meters tremble at the same time as a red number appeared above his head.

[-57]

Soon after, a very welcome message came up.

[The effect (Bleeding) was activated.]

He stretched out the palm of his left hand to the ogre and shouted,

"Fireball!"

A fireball the size of a soccer ball came out of nowhere and flew to the back of the ogre in full .

[-22]

The ogre roared with fury almost falling forward.

Liam felt fear. This monstrosity in front of him was only a level 7, but the bastard had 3.000 HP, was stronger than him and not as stupid as the wolves, gnomes and Lizards of the first layer. With his mediocre attack that barely exceeds 50 damage, how would he solve it?

Its own HP bar was at 57% and its MP had a measly 23%.

He had already been fighting this demon for almost two hours and had only managed to slash the enemy's HP bar by a little over 40%. For not having leveled so far, he was already very tired, because he had to use all of his ability not to be killed. Of course he could revive next, but that would be a waste. These 3 abilities to revive should be used wisely, for he would not have them forever.

"Skills."

.....

Skills - (7/10): [Blessing of the Gods - Rank-S (Temporary)] | [Time Stopping (Active) - Rank-G)] | [Slash (Active) - Rank-F] | [Haste (Active) - Rank-G] | [Fireball (Rank)] | [Mana Regeneration (Passive) - Rank-G] | [Sword Mastery (Passive) - Rank-G]

.....

Haste and Time Stopping was in cooldown. The only skills he could use were Fireball and Slash, but with only 40 MP left, he did not have much to work with.

"Operator, hand me the mana potion."

Before him, a 10-centimeter glass jar containing a blue liquid appeared. Without hesitation, he picked it up and drink the liquid before the ogre recovered.

[You drink a 'Small Mana Potion'. You recovered 50 MP.]

Liam threw the jar into the orb which retrieved it in a ray of blue light. The orb then flew to the top and was wrapped in a bubble of blue light that shielded him in the middle of the battlefield.

"Fireball."

The ogre was hit by the fireball and was engulfed in a small blast.

[The effect (Burn) was activated.]

"Yes!" He exclaimed before squeezing the fist of the katana.

He advanced against the burning ogre.

"Slash!"

The katana glowed with a blue light and cut from the left shoulder to the ogre's right waist. Of course it was not enough to break the demon in two.

With his dexterity 3 times greater than a normal human, on the level, perhaps of a martial artist, or Olympic gymnast, Liam handled the katana as an expert.

With just one step he passed the ogre as he crouched and cut the back of his right knee.

"AARGH!!!" the ogre roared, falling and leaning on his left knee.

That was a critical blow. Of course Liam did not stop there. He got up without giving the ogre a chance to retaliate.

"Slash."

He held the katana in both hands and cut the ogre's neck with all his might. It was another critical blow. In just a few seconds, Liam managed to reduce the ogre's life bar to 40%. There was still a long way to go.

Liam stepped on the ogre's back and jumped around in mid-air as he moved his katana with only his right hand. A critical blow struck the ogre's right shoulder.

He gave a mortal in midair and fell in front of the ogre with his back to the demon. Liam did not stop for a second. As his feet touched the ground, he turned his body and used the force of that twist to cut the ogre's neck one more time while shouting,

"Slash!"

For having the cooldown of 3 seconds and a cost of 10 MP, Slash could be used almost consecutively.

After that cut, he turned the katana and cut again and again creating an X from the two ogre's shoulders. Then he made the katana spin into the air, releasing it and catching it like a dagger and plunging it into the ogre's left eye.

"Slash."

The katana pierced the eye and crossed the ogre's head. Liam was praying that the bastard would die with this blow, but the bastard was only given a critical blow.

He knew it would not be so easy, after all, this damn had a strong regeneration. Logic did not apply to those bastards. The only way to kill them was to empty their life bars.

The ogre roared more furiously than ever before as his right eye stared at Liam promising a painful death.

"Humph... Do not look at me like that, this is war. And in war, anything goes. Fireball."

Liam threw a ball of fire right into the ogre's open mouth. Then he tore off the katana and jumped back, turned, and ran a few paces away and turned in time to see the ogre's head explode.

[Critical Strike.]

[You killed the target.]

[You leveled.]

Liam let out a sigh of relief.

"It seems that still works some logic at the end of everything."

Right then.

"Congratulations on the difficult victory. You received: Soul Core - 1x, Rank-E Chest - 1x, 100 Contribution Points."

"Yes, yes... " He waved his hand as if he was not interested, but stopped when he realized what he had heard. "Wait, did you say... Soul Core?"

Liam quickly returned to the first layer to check out the war spoils.

"Operator, did not you say that these Core fell only from level 30 demons and up?"

"Yes. Soul Core has a 0.5% chance of falling from a level 30 to 50 demon. This rate increases by 0.5% every 20 levels. Already Demons Leaders, Elites, Captains, Dukes and so on have a higher rate of dropam Soul Core. Leaders up to level 20 have a 1.5% chance of dropping Core. Elites have 2%. Captains have 2.5% and so on. Every 20 levels, the rate increases by 0.5%. The first death of each position increases by a 10% chance of dropping the Soul Core."

"So... Why did not you tell me this before?"

"With your strength, I calculated that it was impossible for you to even scratch a demon with a position."

“...”