“Alice, as you know, Spindle is a devil. I want you to learn more about them through him.” Cain said as he approached Alice, Spindle in tow.
Alice nodded, she was just releasing her magic without much knowledge. Having Spindle show her might be beneficial, she just wondered why Cain isn’t the one to teach her, he seems to know a lot.
To Cain, this was like trying to teach a language to someone. He might understand their language but couldn’t speak it. Spindle on the other hand is the native speaker.
As they slowly made their way deeper, Spindle explained.
Devils have ranks, each one obeys the higher and they are decided on emergence. emergence is to devils like birth is to humans, the process of a devil being brought to hell. Which rank will the devil receive depends on how long it took for the devil to fully manifest, who was present on his emergence, and if he got a blessing from the lord of hell.
There are a total of three ranks, lower rank, middle rank, and upper rank. Spindle was a lower rank and Alice is an upper rank!
You can distinguish the ranks simply by the devil look, those who have monstrous looks are lower ranks, and most people can’t distinguish them from deformed monsters. For example, someone could mistake Spindle for a red goblin with wings.
Middle ranks have a cleaner look but with animal features, some have a goat head, and animal hooves.
Upper ranks look more like the lord of hell Asmodeus, Having near-perfect bodies with wings, horns, and tails. To spindle, Alice looked like an upper rank, she also had the same ominous feeling that they give.
It was a bit of a controversial topic among the great scholars of the world, Why do the upper-rank devils look like humans? Humans hated to be compared to devils as the latter were evil, and Devils also hated to be compared to humans as the latter were weak. Cain did know why, Devils, Angels, and humans were the first three races molded by the gods. Upper-rank devils looked like humans and that was a fact.
Cain didn’t know the details of how exactly the rank is given, but with what Spindle just said. Alice took a full 19 years to fully become a devil, the world’s strongest enchanter was present in her emergence, and she was blessed by Amaterasu, a god and not just the devil lord Asmodeus. If she wasn’t an upper rank then what should be?
Spindle kept speaking. Devils gain strength in two major ways, causing chaos and abiding by contracts. Right now, both Alice and Spindle were contracted to Cain, meaning the more they serve him the stronger they will get, imagine it like gathering experience in a job.
Devils can tap into their contractor MP if they were allowed to do so, that meant that Alice could use Cain MP when she run out, provided that he allowed that.
Only the middle rank and upper rank Can level up. Lower ranks don’t have access to the world system so they are stuck without a level. Of course, if they ranked up they will be able to level up. Spindle’s goal now was to rank up by finishing contracts and getting stronger.
All devils can use curse magic, even Spindle’s [Firebolt] a type of cursed magic. It is similar to the humans [Firebolt] and the difference is the type of Mana they use. Devils use Cursed Mana to use curse magic, Angels use Holy Mana provided by the gods to use holy magic, and lastly, humans use Neutral Mana to use normal magic.
Hearing that Cain thought about the dragons, their magic was special. Those flying masses of destruction use Primordial Mana to use Draconic magic.
Mana is derived like this.
Primordial Mana (The energy released at the beginning of the universe)== Neutral Mana (Primordial Mana that has settled down for eons)== Cursed Mana (Neutral Mana that has settled in hell for eons)+ Holy Mana (Neutral Mana that has been blessed by the gods)
Alice as a devil had Access to Cursed Mana, and with Amaterasu blessing her she must have gained Access to Holy Mana.
A large portion of Alice’s power is using both Holy and Cursed magic at the same time. Spindle suggested that she use Cursed magic to fight humanoids and monsters and heal with Holy magic and the reverse when she is fighting a devil.
Spindle would most likely die instantly if she unleashed her Holy magic on him. To him, Alice should take the front more often so she could get used to combat instead of staying a healer.
“How Can I do that, I barely move let alone fight!” Alice asked, looking at Spindle flapping his wings beside her.
“Spindle saw them, Upper-rank fights! They unleash their aura to damage the enemy and buff themselves, and then they spice it with curse magic.” Alice was confused at Spindle’s words, she didn’t know what he meant, Cain on the other hand had an idea.
“He must be saying to first activate your Cursed Aura and then fight in close-quarter combat, at the same time heal your wound with holy magic.” They stopped for a moment so Alice can test that.
Cain and spindle helped Alice to try doing it.
Alice stood firm in her place, closing her eyes and focusing on her magic, [Devil Aura: Curse] She unleashed her Aura.
“Good, now anyone who gets in your aura’s range will receive constant damage from your [Cursed decay], the range seems long as well, it’s over 20 feet!” Cain couldn’t assess her range well as the cave wasn’t straight.
“Now mistress, Use the second aura!” Spindle said, looking excited to see a devil conquer holy magic.
As soon as she tried using her [Devil Aura: Holy] inside her body, the [Devil Aura: Curse] outside stopped working.
“I can’t focus on the both of them at the same time, the moment I think about using the holy aura, my cursed aura just stops working!” Alice said in frustration.
“Don’t worry, eventually you will get a hold of it!” Cain assured her that this was just the starting step for her.
Alice tried it some more yet she wasn’t able to pull them both at the same time. She could mix them and unleash a mixture of holy and curse magic but she wasn’t able to unleash them separately at the same time.
“Now cover your hands with [Cursed decay] so anything you hit will start rotting!” Cain suggested. that seemed easy and she was able to pull it off, sadly it only extends to her bare hands, she couldn’t cover weapons or armor with it.
***
After they walked for a bit, Cain signaled for them to stop. “We are close to the dungeon gate!” The guild wasn’t wrong, a dungeon broke under the ground and it was close.
Cain was tracking the faint Magical traces left by the monsters and they finally reached it.
Why there were two Alpha gators this close together? of course, one naturally lived here and the other came from the dungeon. It all was clear to him now.
“Spindle, go ahead and check if the road is safe. The four of us here will prepare for a long fight!” Cain ordered, Spindle just gave him a sad look before leaving to do his work, ” It’s dangerous on Spindle…” Spindle mumbled.
The cave was a bit tight, it wasn’t a palace where they have a lot of room to move or use large AOE magic. Cain and Selena are going to take the front. Sofia and Alice will stand behind them to provide support.
“I can smell water-nya, there might be a spring nearby.” Selena pointed out. She was right as Cain could already feel the humidity in the air.
“Yeah, I better refrain from using lightning-based magic for the time being,” Cain said, the water underground was rich in minerals and could act as an excellent conductor.
“Alice, in case of an emergency I might control you directly without warning, are you okay with that?” Cain asked just to make sure.
“What are you asking, you’re the one who forced me to say those things to Sofia yesterday. Feel free to take control whenever you want, I could enjoy that.” She replied, Alice seemed to not be too bothered by it so Cain was satisfied.
Cain then turned his attention to Sofia, “Don’t get close to monsters and keep attacking from a safe distance, if any monster managed to get close to you retreat with [Burning hands]. Sofia nodded in silence.
“Selena, as for you, stay close to me and keep an eye on Alice and Sofia, monsters that get too close to them have priority!” Cain simply wanted her to protect the other two.
“I will search for the boss and we will retreat if it seemed to be a hard fight!” Cain didn’t intend to fight the boss on their first try, he will just get a glance at what he could do.
“Any questions?” Cain asked to make sure they were all set.
Sofia lifted her hand, Cain looked at her expecting a serious question or a complaint. She was probably going to bring up the fact that Cain promised that they won’t go this deep.
“If I may ask…” she seemed to hesitate for a moment, ” The toilet…Can you make me one!” She said with a blush, Cain got confused for a moment before nodding in agreement.