After the madman reached level 10, there wasn’t any point in killing Jungle Demons anymore, they didn’t give nearly as much xp as they did at first. He needed to fight stronger foes. He was also caked in blood and had been sleeping rough for the past three nights, so he went back to Hedonia.

It's hard to believe that this house used to be just a tiny little cube you could hold in your hand. It’s such a comfortable slice of heaven now, especially after sleeping in the jungle.

While James was in the jungle, he didn't stop the observers that were flying around and recording him for even a second. Even while he slept, he let them film him. Many people tuned in to watch him train. Many of them were researchers that actually needed to observe the person with a half-demon soul for the sake of their research. But there were also a lot of curious people tuning in to the stream. James didn’t know this though. He knew some researchers would be watching, but he had no idea he had become a moderately famous streamer on the Aetherweb.

After an incredible night’s rest in what felt like the world’s softest bed, James was called to a meeting with Cadmus the leading Archmage, Helios and Lunaris.

“First of, I’d like to thank you for allowing us to observe you so thoroughly. Perhaps too thoroughly.” Cadmus then coughed shyly.

James really didn’t stop the observers from filming him, not even for a second. The people of Hedonia were more open-minded than those on Earth, but even so, it takes a special kind of shamelessness to film yourself non-stop for 3 days.

James was so absorbed in leveling up that he didn’t care though. He was a complete recluse in his past life, but he always dreamed of being powerful, important, famous. A whole life’s worth of yearning was suppressed by his many mental demons. Shame was a foreign concept to him while he was almost high from leveling up. If anything, having all his struggles and all his glorious moments recorded was quite exciting for him.

“We called you here today to tell you about the results of our observations.” Helios said. “You might not be aware, but absorbing the Darkness directly, as you did from the demons - it's not a normal thing. In fact, nobody can do it. If anybody else had killed those demons, they wouldn’t have received the “drops of Darkness” that you received either. There are other ways for us to obtain drops of Darkness, but nobody can just extract them from a demon directly.”

James wasn’t really surprised. It did feel quite weird, it didn’t seem like something just anybody could do.

“As a result, we have decided that you deserve to know more about the Darkness. As you know, the Darkness is not just a corrupting and metaphysical force, but it has spawned many agents that have conquered and destroyed significant chunks of this world.” Lunaris began explaining carefully.

“There are monsters that are born from the Darkness, like the demons you killed. There are many types of such monsters, some that are immensely powerful, but even the most powerful ones of their kind aren’t the main threat.

“The real threat are the ones that can level up, just like you and me. But unlike us, they receive a lot of xp when killing humans and other sentient races that aren't affiliated with the Darkness. So they take great pleasure in hunting us down.

“These agents of Darkness have even formed their own cities. In fact, the sufficiently powerful ones are indistinguishable from a human, they can conceal any trace of Darkness on them.”

Cadmus then intervened. “We trust you completely. Up until now, we’ve performed various investigations, and we concluded that you are indeed who you say you are, and that you’re not an agent of Darkness.” James figured they would be suspicious of his half-demon soul, at least that’s all sorted out now.

“We still don’t know why you have a Half-demon soul, but it will be to our benefit. You have a unique affinity for the Darkness, and there must be countless hidden advantages to that. However, there are unknown dangers as well, so do keep that in mind.”

Cadmus then added. “We have a mission for you. There’s no rush, you can take your time in completing it." Cadmus seemed quite stressed when saying that. "Your goal would be to increase your affinity with the Darkness. We still have a lot to learn when it comes to the Darkness, but you could be our trump card.

“As Lunaris stated, when the agents of Darkness are sufficiently powerful, they are indistinguishable from humans and can even conceal any trace of Darkness on them. So we suspect there may be some of them among us.

“There are ways for us to detect them, but they’re not always accurate, they’re slow, and we’d need to have a hint that the person is an infiltrator in the first place.

“But according to our calculations, you could possibly be able to detect them once you’re sufficiently powerful and have a higher affinity with the Darkness.” Cadmus was hopeful, having a Half-demon soul on their side could have a plethora of advantages.

The four of them then had a pleasant meal together, a delicious feast prepared by Helios with his great cooking skills. The meal was also supposed to give a buff to all stats, but James liked the food too much. He ended up eating so much that he didn't even fit in his pants anymore, and so he received a debuff instead.

James then returned to his house. With this mission, he had yet another reason to get stronger. But with the tasty food and comfy beds of this world, he almost wished he could live the quiet life of a recluse again.

But with great power comes even greater comfort. If he can eat and sleep like this now, just what realms of pleasure await him when he’s rich and powerful? Laziness won’t do, the rewards this world has to offer are just too great. And so he has to train hard.

Just then, Helios and Lunaris paid him a visit.

“Hey buddy, we realized that you haven't really had the time to unwind since you came to this world. Let’s forget training for today and hang out.” Helios was so considerate and nice it almost made James uncomfortable.

“Also, I didn’t want you to think Helios was the only good cook around here, so I brought you some of my homemade sweets.” Lunaris then swiftly put one of the chocolates in James’s mouth, which gave him a speed buff. It was a familiar feeling, almost like an energy drink.

Helios and Lunaris then showed James around Hedonia. They had a great time, especially since James wasn’t used to this world’s forms of entertainment.

A particular attraction that James won’t forget anytime soon was Hedonia’s equivalent of bungee jumping/skydiving. A portal teleported you way up in the sky, and a net-like spell caught you before hitting the ground. Or you could choose the other variant where there was a portal at the bottom and you were sent back into the sky just before you hit the ground, over and over and over again.

If that won’t cure you of your fear of heights, what will?

After they spent the whole day together, Helios and Lunaris had a parting gift for James.

“So you don’t sneak off unprepared again, we decided to give you some much-needed items.” They’re both so nice to him, he really must pay them back somehow. But he’s still very weak by this world’s standards. He'd be a confused bum without the two of them helping him out.

“What will be of particular interest to you is this spellbook. It’s nothing fancy, it just teaches you some basic spells, but since you want to pursue the mage path you’ll definitely need to learn them. Although you might also want to consider training your body, who needs spells when you’ve got all this?” Helios then flexed and started doing some push-ups.

“We also put various useful tools, potions and a grade 3 teleportation scroll in there. You can tear the scroll to be teleported to Hedonia, but you can’t move from your place and it takes 10 seconds for the teleportation to take place, so be careful. We don’t want you dying out there, you crazy rascal.” Lunaris then rubbed James’s head. He felt a warm feeling in his heart, these 2 people have been so nice to him, he'll make sure to pay them back tenfold in the future.

“Anyway, tomorrow we’ll send you a message detailing where you can train next, along with useful information about the geography of this world. Rest up for tonight though.”

After parting ways, James started thinking about the drops of Darkness he had gathered from the demons. Helios and Lunaris told him they are used in various spells and in crafting, but they didn’t personally know how to use them.

James was resolved to not be a hesitant little coward anymore.

So he became a nut instead.

While lying in bed, he had the brilliant thought “I’m the only half-demon around here. I can probably use these directly, unlike everybody else.”

The drops of Darkness were like tiny, jagged, flat rocks though. He definitely couldn’t swallow them.

So James crushed them into a powder. He planned on mixing the powder with water and drinking it. But he tasted the powder with the tip of his tongue and it was absolutely vile, it had the taste of rotten garbage.

But while the taste was horrible, it didn't really smell like anything. So, being the genius that he is, he came to the brilliant conclusion that he should just snort it. And that's what he did.

Naturally, his nose started bleeding profusely. His head felt like an anvil fell on it. And then he passed out.

[Your demonic side has grown much stronger]