Chapter 5: A Dark Elf Master Who Was Impressed
In the next three days, Chen Rui finally had peace of mind. The dark dungeon was cleaned thoroughly, hay was laid and the three meals a day were guaranteed. It was all done by Slee at the command of Aldas.
“Chen Rui, Master Aldas asked for you.”
The initial prey in his mouth had become a guest to serve. He had suffered a beat for nothing, so the imp naturally felt psychologically imbalance. Looking Chen Rui walking away from behind, the little devil stomped his feet and gnawed his teeth: “Damn human, I, the great Slee will eat your flesh and drink your blood one day!”
However, the great Slee could only continue cleaning the dungeon now – the place where the damn human lives.
“Chen Rui, come on!” Aldas saw Chen Rui coming over and got excited. Although the human’s name was initially Arthur when he was interrogated and he was now Chen Rui, but the dark elf master couldn’t bother such petty thing.
Nowadays, Aldas had been completely convinced by Huarong Dao. He no longer questioned the truth of the Master Wukong. The original thought of killing Chen Rui when he was useless was also forgotten.
Even a trivial deduction tool had such a magical charm, if the elixirs and artifacts could be slowly discovered… the dark elf couldn’t help but get excited when he thought of it.
“Look at the new chess I made.”
Chen Rui saw that the original Huarong Dao that was made in a rush had been modified by the dark elf into a fine art. Each piece was engraved with the beautiful relief head sculpture. However, Cao’s appearance became exceptionally handsome, and Guan Yu actually grew two curved horns; he looked exactly like a grim reaper. The rest like Zhao Yun, Ma Chao had also changed their appearances. It had become the demon’s version of Huarong Dao.
Through the communication these days with Aldas and Slee, Chen Rui learned more about the general knowledge of the Demon Realm. The Dark Moon City where he was located in a territory of the Fallen Angel Empire and the lord is Alice’s sister, Princess Shea. Lucifer.
The common demons in the Demon Realm were the grim reaper, succubus, centaur, lich, and imp.
These demons each had special features:
The grim reaper, also known as the great demon, was the highest-rank demon other than the royal family. They were born powerful warriors, excel in using all weapons and they could choose to specialize in spirit or strength, or even both. Some great demons even possessed more powerful strength after their bloodline mutated. The upper limit of an ordinary great demon was at high-rank demon. The mutants could break through the bottleneck to reach a higher rank.
The centaur was strong, brave and fearless; usually the best striker in the assault. Some also become blacksmiths that specialized in forging. The upper limit was at middle-rank.
The lich was fragile but had strong magical power. The talented few had the ability to tame demonic beasts. Their upper limit was at middle-rank.
The succubus was a female-exclusive race which specialized in spirit only. They possessed the talent of charm to seduce anyone. In terms of reproduction, the probability of the baby to be female was higher and the baby will be a succubus as long as it’s a girl. The upper limit was middle-rank.
As for the imps like Slee, they were the lowest-rank demon. They were usually a sacrifice on the battlefield. The higher-rank imps had the illusion ability that bewildered others. A very small number of mutants could be promoted to the grim reaper.
Dark elf and dark gnome belonged to the vassal race but they were also indispensable in the demons family: the dark elf was good at stealing, assassination and poisoning, but someone like Aldas who specialized in pharmaceutics and became a master was an exception. Also, a few dark elves had superb magical talents that could become a necromancer that was stronger than lich.
Although the dark gnomes were short, ugly and had little fighting power, their creativity was amazing. They specialized in craftsmanship and invention. Some of the outstanding ones became the mechanics master in alchemy.
Due to the special power of the two moons in the Demon Realm, there were no such thing as mixed-blood. Even with a combination of two different races, the baby would either be from the race of the father or the mother randomly.
Besides, there were many powerful creatures in the Demon Realm, such as the elemental race, the evil eye, the fallen dragons that expelled from the ground, and many demonic beasts, making this place full of dangers.
Compared to humans, the initial power of the demons were much stronger but their rooms of improvement were small. Regardless of the talents of human beings, the starting points at birth were almost the same. Yet, the demons were different. The difference in ranks was obvious at birth. Even after reaching adulthood, they would most likely reach an upper limit and it was hard to advance their rank.
In other words, the starting point of the demons was higher than humans and their life span was longer too. Yet, their plasticity was much lower than humans. The higher the rank of the demons, the more room of improvements they got.
Shea and Alice belong to the royal family of the demons. Generally speaking, the royal family were similar to the strongest human beings, possessed unlimited potential. During battles, they had natural coercion against ordinary demons. The strongest of the bloodline possessed a special talent that emits terrifying pressure.
Perhaps due to their revere of the royal family, neither Aldas nor Slee exposed much of the two princesses and the fallen angel empire.
“These characters don’t have a good image. The powerful individuals in the primeval age weren’t like this… beautification and modification should be done adhering to history.” Chen Rui bluntly criticized the characters of the Demon Realm version of Huarong Dao. Yet, he did not consider that regardless of history or originality, he had already made a total mess. Solely the great master Sun Wukong was enough to make Wu Cheng’en burst into tears in the underworld.
Aldas accepted this criticism and smiled embarrassingly, “It’s just my hand was itching. Next time I will make one according to what you said. This time I passed with 209 steps, much better than the last time.”
Chen Rui shook his head slightly and sighed, “Not enough. Master Wukong used only 81 steps, and according to his speculation, it could be lesser.”
Aldas knew that to lessen a move, a detailed calculation was needed. When he first solved Huarong Dao, he was so ecstatic that he did not remember how many steps he used. The second time seemed to use more than 300 steps. When he saw Chen Rui broke the game in more than 100 steps, he was convinced that he could only look up to Master Wukong’s record.
“Actually, the arrangement of “Riding the Horse with Sword” is just one of the arrangements of Huarong Road. There are a few more. However, Huarong Dao was just a deductive leisure activity for the great master, you don’t have to be too obsessed.”
Chen Rui deliberately said that when Aldas was obsessed with Huarong Dao. He was clearly playing cat and mouse with Aldas. In fact, the dark elf shook his head and said, ”Master is indeed a master. A trivial thing for him has such great research value for us.”
“Yet, you can’t neglect your pharmaceutics,” Chen Rui switched the topic and casually showed his true intention. “Why not I will continue to try your potions, the more poisonous the better. If you can crack the blessings of Master Wukong, then perhaps your potions can reach a higher level.”
Testing the potions? It is definitely to progress the booting of Super System!
Chen Rui was clear in his mind: Huarong Dao could only save me temporarily. It is not a long-term solution. Only if I can possess strong power, then I can escape the Demon’s Realm as soon as possible and save my own life. The mysterious Super System is perhaps the only hope.
The dark elf was surprised and said, “Aren’t you afraid that you would die when the blessing is broken?”
“To better understand the properties of the herbs, Master Wukong personally tasted all the herbs. He almost died of poison for a few times, but he still did not give up. The reason why he could make an elixir like the peach wasn’t superior talent, but more importantly, persistence and perseverance.” Chen Rui’s added a Divine Farmer [1] halo on Sun Wukong.
“Try it himself?” Aldas’s face was full of reverence and he said, “No wonder he can become a great master could contend with the gods! It seems that other than knowledge, there are still many things I have to learn from the great master… ”
Chen Rui saw the enthusiasm on Aldas’s face. He was afraid that this fellow would actually personally try the herbs and quickly said, “These days, I have been feeling the messages from the remnants of the great master. I am deeply touched. I have made up my mind to inherit the legacy of the great master. Unfortunately, I have no foundation of pharmaceutics in the past and I cannot understand those profound knowledge. Master, are you willing to help me? Even though I am a human.”
“I do! From today, I will teach you the basics of pharmaceutics!” As a dark elf, Aldas was definitely not honest demon, but he was also a genuine potion master. This time he was really touched, and he almost sworn to be brothers for life.
“Thank you, master! No matter how difficult it is, I will persist!” Looking at Aldas’s expression, Chen Rui knew he could basically stop worrying about staying alive and take the opportunity to learn something about pharmaceutics since it doesn’t hurt to learn more.
Aldas found a book called “Basic of Herbs”. When he was about to start his enlightening teaching, Little Princess Alice came, and in addition to Kia, there was another unfamiliar, short-haired girl.
This little girl looked beautiful. Purple haired; red eyes; light brown skin; proportionate body; a heroic spirit in between her eyes and a slightly revealing set of reddish-orange armor. She was also carrying a huge sword in a scabbard, emitting a wild charm all over.
Although the short haired little girl was also a beauty, Chen Rui subconsciously panicked whenever he saw a female demon, especially a girl brought by Alice after he got traumatized by the blackhearted loli and the essence-sucking siren.
“Athena, this is the human being I mentioned. He’s quite interesting.” Alice held Athena’s arm intimately. If he did not consider Athena’s curvaceous body and delicate face, he would have thought that they were a couple.
“Master Aldas, hi.” Athena wasn’t as casual as Alice. She politely bowed to Aldas. However, the courtesy only applied to the dark elf. Upon looking at Chen Rui, her eyes were examined him unscrupulously.
Chen Rui had the feeling of being in a cage in the zoo and being visited by tourists, so he turned his head to Aldas for help.
Who knows the dark elf pretended not to see, secretly hiding the Demon Realm version of Huarong Dao in his sleeves – Athena was still easy to deal with but Princess Alice was a well-known little devil in the New Moon City. That new chess he made with much effort cannot be taken by her again.
Although Aldas’s movements were small, how could he hide from the little loli’s sharp eyes? Alice’s big eyes looked at Aldas’s sleeves and her small head moved accordingly. This deliberate movement was so obvious that Athena’s attention also shifted.
“Master, what are you hiding under your sleeves? Can you let me see?”
“Nothing, I just made a set of Huarong Dao in a rush.” Aldas noticed the bad situation and quickly shifted the subject, “Oh right, Chen Rui, where’s the gift you promised to give Princess Alice the day before yesterday?”
Alice’s attention was indeed shifted and her big eyes flashed with hope fell on Chen Rui, “Human brother, I’m waiting for your gift.”
This sweet call of “brother” reminded Chen Rui his experience three days ago. He almost jumped and shouted: the same trick is not effective for a realm-passer! Your acting is too pretentious! Too ostentatious!
Even if she was blackhearted, under the pressure of loli’s cuteness, Chen Rui immediately took out something.
