Several hours later, the two realised they were lost. It was a maze. There was no end to the corridors that drifted apart. It appeared like a grid-system. However, there was little no way out of it walking through endless torrents of passages in their experience.

"Ha, thirteen, you?" Cried Terra.

"Fifteen - sixteen!" Spoke Andrew as he finished off the third minotaur that swarmed around him. "Are we going closer to a den... corral?"

"Damn it. Whatever, you are cheating with that damn blood magic."

"Not my fault someone is so hell-bent on beating them up. It's inefficient, I've told you that too many times already!"

"What? Since when!"

"Like...? Huh, I don't remember."

"Then you just thought it? Yet, you didn't say anything?!"

"Hmm, maybe? Your fault mister knight minion."

"Fourteen."

"Huh, where?"

Andrew looked around curiously. He could not find the minotaur at all. However, when he say Terra with a wide grin, the young man pointed towards a far passageway.

"I'm not fixing that sword," scoffed Andrew. "You broke it. You deal with it."

"Huh? Wait! No!"

Andrew already sprinted in the other direction and Terra looked back and forth between his blade and the boy. After a second of reflection, he bounded off towards the blade and the two separated.

Andrew snickered and quickly froze a patch up ice underneath a roaring minotaur. As the beast clumsily fell, Andrew jumped atop it and used a blood-dagger to pierce deeply into its neck. Using the creature's blood, he crafted another to add to his collection.

In total, five whirled around him as he looked for another one.

"Help! HELP!"

Andrew looked back and paled. "Come to the corpse! I hate to do this, but you'll have to carry me after!"

"Hell no, brat! Just kill them!"

Andrew shook his head and pressed his hand into the dead minotaur's wound. He created hundreds of tiny daggers that whirled around him. Even that wouldn't be enough.

He broke apart the five he created before and growled, "be ready to finish them off! It definitely, definitely does not reflect in the scoreboard! Duck!"

Terra dove forward and twelve minotaurs continued behind him. As the young man fell, so, too, did the daggers descend on the beasts. They targeted no particular location. Instead, the tiny daggers were launched at random. Nevertheless, the first line fell due to the sudden blow.

In a moment, a second line trampled over the first to be greeted with another wave of daggers. By the time the second wave fell, the third approached. However, the bottom-most minotaurs were already silent. The second, however, screamed loudly under the hooves of their brethren.

Nevertheless, a few daggers still pricked the last four. Andrew slumped over and leaned back. "Leave one of them alive. Four is nothing for you, right?"

"If I had a half-decent sword!"

Andrew rolled his eyes and threw his own unused blade towards Terra.

"No complaining now."

Andrew lazily rested on the minotaur corpse as he looked at his minion passionately cut through the stumbling group of minotaurs. Two of the ones trampled upon decided to join the fray when Terra came into the mix. However, the young man led the four further and further away.

"Huh? What is he... bastard!"

Andrew noticed his plan just a little too late. He was forced to face two, albeit heavily damaged, minotaurs completely unarmed when Terra guided them through a different passage. His mana pool was also next to nothing.

With a thunderous roar, the two charged without heed of their injuries. One directly fell, but soon was forced up by the other. It seemed like the two were physically relying upon each other to stand. Therefore, as the two crawled towards Andrew, he, too, crawled.

Away, of course.

However, seeing the boy once merely sitting atop the corpse was enough to determine him as a target, even disregarding the previous blows he struck against them.

Andrew bitterly sighed and staggered to his feet. He was exhausted. However, he was not about to be done in by the two after coming so far. Using another minotaur corpse as a small obstacle, he crawled just in front the stumbling pair and glared at the two.

"Come on, come on," coaxed Andrew.

The two bellowed the moment they saw the desecrated corpse and bounded forward. The moment the first axe appeared, Andrew fell to the side. He dodged the axe and heard it cut into the other.

The victimised minotaur growled and shoved the other towards the marble walls. As an impromptu, hazy brawl appeared right next to him, Andrew muttered indignantly.

"Well, there goes my grand plan. Whatever."

He stretched his body and forced his blurry vision to focus. He leant down and jumped as high as he could muster. It allowed him to grip the waist of the winning minotaur. The beast immediately tried to buck him off, but Andrew held fast as he shouted, "drain, drain, drain, drain, drain, drain."

With every application, his mind would grow numb for the space of a second before it cleared. It needed constant body contact so it was nearly useless against mages or foes that could kill him easily in close combat. This, effectively, made it a nearly useless skill. However, when the opponents were already busy or injured, it allowed him to absorb its life force to resupply him with mana.

The once brown, bristled fur turned white and the beast fell atop the one it used to be bashing vigorously with its fist. Andrew used the cover of the beast to touch the trapped minotaur who painfully screeched in response.

He, too, fell. However, Andrew's mana pool was forced into a strange state. The life force of the two minotaurs, dying or not, forcibly expanded his mana pool significantly. He did not like the feeling of his veins bulging, his muscles rippling, and skin glowing with a faint light so he shot a barrage of the two creatures' blood to expend the mana before it could damage him.

Terra was just walking back when the corridor was dyed crimson. Andrew did not even bother condensing it so it dyed the first ten meters of the passage in a thin layer before intermittent patches appeared afterwards.

"Wha- what are you doing?"

Terra was looking at Andrew curiously, but Andrew just sighed loudly.

"Too strong - their life force, not them. Blood magic is annoying here."

"Well, it is already supposed to be a repulsive, disgusting path as it stands. Forbidden magic, you know?"

Andrew quirked his head and laughed lightly. "You know that blade alteration skill? That's technically frowned upon too. Same thing with blood magic. It's just the implications and the potential it holds rather than the magic itself. Well, naturally you have to kill things to get access to ammunition, but still."

Terra looked thoughtfully as he stared at the ceiling. "How would it be frowned upon? And you can use your own blood, I guess."

"If your an idiot," scoffed Andrew. "It isn't bad to use it to heal yourself, considering it'd be lost anyways, but to shot it willy-nilly is dumb."

"And the earth magic?"

"Forgeries and such nonsense... though it is good money. Whatever, I may or may not set you up later... actually how much gold do you have?"

Terra snickered and looked away bashfully. Andrew half-glared at him before he rose his hands.

"I was relying on messengers to drop off packages back home. It isn't stealthy, nor did I think it would be, but I don't really care about most of that nonsense. Commoners don't really care about the details anyways if a good enough rumour circulates."

Terra looked offended, "hey! We're not that simple and mindless."

"Never said you were," laughed Andrew. "It is mostly just that we have other things to do on a daily basis rather than purposely dig into something just because. Thus, we take things at face-value for the most part."

"Hmm, say it like that then," spoke Terra irritably. "That way makes it sound far, far better."

"Shush, you traitor. You led those four knowing that I'd have to kill those two with damn near nothing."

"Oh, eighteen," smirked Terra.

"Did you really want to tally those up? Considering that mass of flesh over there was mostly kill by me."

"Nah, they were downed by the other minotaurs."

"Due to me."

"Minotaurs."

"Twenty-four."

"You have eighteen, brat."

"Who gets the ones I killed then?" Scoffed Andrew.

"Me?"

"Nice to meet you, mister Pulgist," laughed Andrew as he reclaimed his sword from the man's hip. "Enjoy your dry, cracked fists - they'll impress all the noble ladies."

Terra was about to say something, but he stopped suddenly. "Brat, we have a problem."

"Minion, speak."

"I'm no- gah, whatever, there is a lot more..."

Andrew muttered and turned around. It was a relatively straight passage so he could see the advancing enemies. Oddly they were not minotaurs, but something more akin to cats. However, the beasts were rapidly closing in on them.

Andrew shouted, "I'm hungry so you guys wait!"

He slammed both palms to the ground as closed off the passage with a thick sheet of steel. There were only about five meters between the two parties, but snarls were heard from behind the steel wall - from very animated imprints on the steel wall.

"Other side too, hey?" Murmured Andrew as he closed another section with two of the corpses inside.

He poked out a few holes before his mana pool was completely exhausted. Nevertheless, the two could not get any real rest under the constant torrent of cries from outside.

'Andrew, he's here again. He says it's taking too long. Oh, our house is better than before too.'

'Oh, hey. How so? New wood and all that?'

'Yeah, pretty decent. Did not like sleeping in that seedy inn for a while, but dec-' She paused momentarily before projecting angrily. 'Seriously?! What did you do to him?'

'Oh, ask him if he knows about the Reijin.'

'Why shou- Ah, shut up old man, oh, wrong person... He wants it. Whatever 'it' is. Gah, why am I between this damned thing?!'

'I told you. Reijin?'

'Apparently rogue demon hunters commissioned by a council appointed by the thre- no. Swords. A lifetime supply.'

'Nah, that's more than enough information,' laughed Andrew before musing, 'so why do they want to kill me? I told them I'm not actually a demon king... yet. Bastard didn't even tell me how to turn! Damn you, Lord Huren!'

'Lord who? Whatever, deal with this.'

'Can't. Trapped in an ancient ruin. How's school?'

'Decent, you know? Oh, Re- damn it, just send him whatever the hell it is he wants.'

'Just tell that pervert to wait. Oh, tell him that I'll make a picture book if he gives them back as soon as I get back. Though I'll have to read that raunchy thing.'

'Disgusting pigs... men.'

'Pretty much,' projected Andrew laughingly. 'Leya, don't miss me too much, after I kill some evil kitty-cats, I might find a ... why does this feel different now?'

'I broke that damned seal,' growled a raspy male voice. 'Hurry up and give me that figurine. My collection was perfect - utterly perfect, but no! You just had to make new merchandise!'

"Ugh, Kakarov."

'Just wait! I'm lost in a ruin after running away from demon hunters. They didn't like me swindling random humans for some reason or another.'

'I don't care! Tunnel upwards. You must have come in that way if you are lost in the pitiful ruin.'

'Just scamper off, old man. Just wait. Hell, why is this damn ruin so big?!'

Chancellor Kakarov unwittingly gave Andrew information to his questions after a few prodding questions.

It was originally once a city that demons and human lived peacefully in. Unfortunately, relationships soured under the differing growing religions that were adopted by the different parties. They were inherently inclined to one magic system or another, albeit not restricted, so they gave precedence towards that aspect.

It was due to internal strifes that civil wars were brought forth. It is said a council, neutral to the conflict, remained in the ancient city while it burned under the flames of war led by two different parties. Granted, they were the strongest of their generation, but only two left the council of eight.

One was a human by the name of Alphones and the other was a demon, Kurz. The only ones capable of combating these two were the others in the council. Yet, with the faultering relations, the leaders remained in the ancient city for many long years in seclusion.

Some say they left one at a time, but no one even knew the location until it was unearthed two decades ago. Even with all that time, few were capable of delving too deeply into it. Not for few of monsters, traps, or even unconventional dangers. It was simply due to the lack of proper food. All the meat is said to be poisonous and all food brought in expires far faster than usual.

Andrew looked at Terra who returned the glance with a quirk of his head.

"I think... huh. Well, we're not dead yet!"

"Why did you bring that up?"

"Well, people say... whatever, to hell with it. Yay for blood magic! Thank me for curing that raging poi-" he paused when he caught Terra's cold glare. "Let's keep goin- shut up, old man!"

"I'm not-"

"Not you."

'Yeah, yeah. I get four full spells books up to 'mage' level for personal use and the chance to read two legendary books. Shadow Wyvern sounds cool. Hmm, give me a little while - also I might die from minotaur poisoning. Maybe.'