Chapter 488 Back at i (1/2)

A few hours later, Granin barges into the chamber and pushes past my ever watching triad of guards to climb down into my cell. When he reaches the bottom and sees me feeding a little mini-demon, he freezes for just a second before he bursts out laughing.

[You as well?] I complain.

[I mean - I just - … Can you imagine their faces if they heard?]

Not this again. I'm almost starting to feel guilty.

[He's an incredible piece of work!] I point out defensively. [I didn't even need to do anything to change his core, just fiddled with his evolutions a little.]

[I know, I know.] Granin waves a hand. [I have to say I was pretty impressed they managed to raise a demon so well, it's notoriously difficult to do.]

That's intriguing. Now that I have a demon in my little group, I'm quite curious to learn more about them. The more I know about my team members, the better I'm able to support them.

[Why's that the case? Is it something to do with the basic sh.e.l.l mentioned in the profile?]

Granin nods.

[Demons are a bit of an oddity in the Dungeon. You can effectively think of them as being divided into two groups. The lower-tiered demons sp.a.w.n as basically brainless, violent monsters who are even more bloodthirsty than your average beast. Sometimes they don't even eat what they hunt, just move onto the next battle to satisfy their bloodl.u.s.t.]

[What a waste of perfectly good Bioma.s.s!]

[I know. As they evolve, they get stronger, but their basic instincts don't go away. All demons are capable magic users basically from birth, even those who focus on it and evolve down the path to becoming like our little friend here,] he gestures to the Envy demon, [get more adept with magic but are still enslaved by their instincts.]

[So they get smarter, but remain mindless killing machines?]

[Basically. They become more cunning killing machines.]

[The Third Strata sounds terrifying!]

[It is. But we aren't done yet.]

[There's more?!]

[Oh, yes. Once they reach tier six, the demons begin to take on aspects and transition to the second group. These are the upper demons. More powerful, more specialised and entirely in control of their instincts. Just as smart as the surface races, they have their own society down there and believe me when I say that it's brutal.]

[Waaaaait a second. You're telling me that when demons evolve enough, they 'graduate' into a fully formed demon society?]

This is shocking news!

[Indeed,] Granin confirms, [ruled over from far below by Arconidem the Demon Lord and author of the Red Truth. The Demon Cities are a ma.s.sive threat to the civilised people of Pangera.]

[Wait, so you guys don't trade or interact with them in any way?]

[With demons? That's illegal. The penalty is death. The Abyssal Legion wages a constant war or the Demon Cities, trying to exterminate them entirely. To any delvers, the demons are a continual menace. They don't want us down there and hunt down any delvers they find like animals. Thankfully, they spend far more time fighting each other than they do us.]

[Why's that? Aren't they intelligent?]

Granin shrugs helplessly.

[They just like killing. Doesn't matter what it is. If you can't kill the demons in your own city, then the demons in the city next door are fair game. They might be able to control their urges, but that doesn't mean they don't enjoy indulging them. Be careful with your new friend there. He's not able to betray you, but you might find he gets a little erratic if you don't let him cut loose now and again.]

I look at my new pet. The mini-eyeball is quite adorable. He can't support himself on his wings just yet and has to 'walk' around on his little stick-thin arms. When I try to feed him a tiny mouth appears in thin air to start nibbling on the Bioma.s.s I offer. Obviously, I'm not feeding him the Bioma.s.s from his own former body. I don't know if that has a bad effect, but it's surely very weird.

[Enough about the demon, we need to work out what you are going to be doing between now and the next fight.]

[Keep grinding on my elemental skills? The ice magic turned out to be quite effective.]