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He looked around the room, now alone except for the bound and gagged thralls all lying in the corner. She’d done quite a bit of work in the little time she’d been here. Technically speaking, this room, the hallway, and the staircase leading down to it would work just fine as a humble, defensible base from him to operate out of.

But he had eight more prisoners here, and that meant eight more demons to summon. And if he had eight demons available, he was sure as hell going to use them. With them, this small, humble room would transform into a massive complex with more defenses than the entire town combined could hope to get through.

It likely wouldn’t even take all eight sacrifices to get the base into peak condition, too. So Zeth could theoretically hold on to a few of them and save them in some prison down here for an emergency when he needed a favor from a demon with no way to quickly find a life to offer in exchange. Though, the idea of keeping prisoners long-term carried with it a whole host of problems like getting food and water to them on a regular basis, but he was sure he could figure something out.

Regardless, he wanted to go ahead and summon his next demon. Not just to continue working on this place, but also because he wanted more information about the Thirteenth Realm. Being able to choose where he put that beacon down wasn’t just helpful because it let him skip the waiting period; if he got enough information about the different locations in Hell, there was a possibility he may be able to find a place where the demons weren’t so horrible to work with.

As such, he spent the next three and a half hours drawing up another circle. Down in this protected bunker, he didn’t need to focus nearly as much on his surroundings listening for monsters, so he could just relax and allow Vile Focus to take over the drawing process itself.

By the time he was done, he found himself bent over a completed, eight-and-a-half-foot ritual circle with a notification tickling his mind.

[Vile Focus’s Rank has increased to 7.

+1 Skill Point. You have 3 Skill Points.]

Vile Focus was getting close to hitting its maximum Rank now. At this point, it was reducing all of his ritual requirements by a little over fifteen percent—well worth the cost, considering it’d only been eight Skill Points to purchase. And by now, with seven Points recouped, it’d effectively only cost him one.

His next goal would be to purchase Otherworldly Excellence, which cost seventeen Skill Points, before he tried Leveling Up again. At three right now, he was still a ways away from that goal, but he assumed he’d be earning quite a few extra Points from Ranking up Demonic Covenant, considering how many times he planned on performing that ritual in the future.

Speaking of, he was about to try and complete his next demon summoning in record time. The circle was ready and waiting for his input, so after feeding it a sacrifice from one of the corpses he had lying around, he knelt down and placed his hands on the chalky lines.

This time, he closed his eyes and focused inward as he felt the mana being drawn from his body to feed its effects. He could feel that tiny question in his mind, open-ended and waiting for him to give it his answer. So, directing his thoughts in its direction, he pored over his memories of the description that had been given to him by that demon woman, concentrating on creating a picture in his imagination of what she’d described.

Hell was, apparently, hot. And the words of the first demon Zeth had summoned backed that fact up, as well. The sun there was so hot it would melt a human’s skin right off their bones in a fraction of a second, and even if demons were more resilient to heat, they weren’t immune. As such, their homes and structures were all underground, not spending more than maybe an hour at a time on the surface. Though, she had been vague about that timing; maybe some demons could resist it longer than others?

Regardless, demons lived in sprawling underground structures beneath gray, lifeless dirt. Completely devoid of water, the soil there was more packed dust than anything, cracking apart into mere particles in the air when disturbed. Really, it sounded like the entirety of the Thirteenth Realm was devoid of most color. Far away from the lush green forests and sparkling blue oceans of the First, the majority of what one looked at in Hell would either be gray or black, with the only color appearing in that Realm coming from the skin of its denizens, and the ever-plentiful fire constantly erupting across its landscape.

With the general idea of what things looked like in his mind, Zeth moved on to trying to pick out a specific location. He’d made a map of everything the demon had described to him, but she, herself, had admitted it was faulty. She really only knew the specifics of her local area, with most of everything else just being vague descriptions of “there’s a settlement far east” or “that territory’s closer than the others.”

So, any specific information he got ended up centering around the settlement she’d said she lived in—Eitu Fini. Technically, he’d have the most success putting his beacon down in that same place once again, but he wanted to try and get someone from another spot. Not only would he get a wider breadth of information about the Thirteenth Realm by asking questions to as many people from as many different places as possible, but he also wanted to try and find different cultures of demons across the realm. If there was some place where the demons were a little kinder, or were willing to accept payment in the form of something other than human lives, it’d be a phenomenal discovery.

There were three settlements near enough to Eitu Fini that she’d known enough about to give a detailed description. That settlement was apparently north of some sort of river central to all demon society, on the western side of it, and so were these other three. One went further north, away from the river, another went further west, upstream, and another went east, downstream. Picking effectively at random, Zeth decided to try and summon someone from the eastern settlement. This one was apparently called Onzerfor Fisi.

The settlements in the Thirteenth Realm certainly have some strange names.

He focused on the map of the realm he’d created in his mind, envisioning himself zooming in on the settlement he’d chosen, the location slowly gaining more detail as he kept focusing on the singular location. A wasteland of gray, dry dirt, dozens of houses and structures dug into the ground below. And as he focused on this singular image, he felt something click in his mind. Like the question the ritual was asking was a lock, and the picture in his mind was a key he’d slid into place.

From there, he had nothing left to do but wait. Hopefully, if all had gone well, the wait wouldn’t be too long. Otherwise, he’d have to—

[Demonic Covenant’s Rank has increased to 3.

+1 Skill Point. You have 4 Skill Points.]

Almost instantly, the ritual finished. Zeth’s eyes shot open as he barked out a laugh.

Holy shit, I fucking did it! That was insanely fast.

As flames shot up from the center of the circle and licked the ceiling of his cavern, he watched in anticipation of his newest guest’s arrival.

The demon appeared, and he looked over its appearance, lit by the few scraps of fire that floated through the air before they disappeared. This one seemed male, with extremely dark crimson skin—far darker than the other two demons he’d summoned. Other than that, this one looked relatively as expected when it came to demonkind. Tall, muscular structure, and a sneer etched across his face. Yep—that was a demon.

[Influence check failed.]

A familiar bolt of anxiety shot through Zeth’s chest as the fear aura kicked in. Though, unlike the other demons, this one was far, far stronger. It dug into his mind, a worm that practically forced him to glance around the dark lair, checking for intruders hiding in there with him, ready to strike. His imagination created eyes peering at him from the corners of the room, disappearing when he tried to focus on them. His ears heard footsteps approaching from behind, a blade scraping across the stone floor.

“Gods,” he muttered, “why’s it so bad now?”

The demon looked over to find Zeth standing on the edge of the circle. He tilted his head, as if curious, and began walking toward Zeth.

He drew a sharp breath, realizing he hadn’t limited the demon’s movement yet. “Stop!”

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The demon froze, a look of disappointment flashing across his face.

“W-what’s up with the fear?” he asked. “I’ve summoned demons before, but yours is way worse than theirs.”

“Then the disparity between my Influence Stat and yours is higher than it was between theirs and yours,” he answered in a deep, grizzled voice.

Zeth let out a shaky groan. “So if I want a stronger summon, I’m gonna have to deal with more of this, then, huh?”

He shrugged.

Zeth frowned. “The l-last demon I summoned had a much weaker fear effect, and her skin was much lighter. Yours is stronger, and your skin is darker. Is there a correlation there? Like, the darker your skin, the stronger that Skill is?”

“Not quite,” he replied simply. “Our skin grows darker the longer we stay out in the sun; it technically has nothing to do with our power. However, one might imagine that spending a long time in a sun as murderous as our own would require one to be much stronger than the others of our species.”

“Oh. So, how long can you stay out?”

The demon chuckled. “I see you are a curious one of your kind. I have met a couple of you during my lifetime; if I continue answering questions without any promised compensation, we may find that time has run out before I can claim my prize for coming to this place.”

Zeth nodded. “Then let’s negotiate.”

While this demon was much less prone to randomly insulting Zeth, he also seemed much more adept at negotiations, calling out any subtle lies or tricks Zeth tried to use to convince him to work for longer in exchange for a human life. At first, he’d assumed the demon must’ve had some sort of sixth sense for detecting deception, but then he realized that the aura of fear coming off of this demon was so strong, any time he tried lying, his voice involuntarily shook. It made him wonder whether that Skill was really made for combat, or if it was really more useful for situations like these.

In the end, he just barely managed to convince the demon to work for four hours. Not great compared to the five hours he’d managed to conscript the previous one for, but he had to imagine a demon as powerful as this one would be able to get more work done in less time compared to the others.

So, once he got the demon set up with his orders and instructions for the creation of his base, Zeth stood and set off to go meet with that merchant woman. Hopefully, he’d be able to get a cushy, well-paying job asking him to simply move some boxes around for as long as she was in town.

On his way through the streets, heading to the tavern she’d asked to meet in, he let out a wide yawn, feeling his eyes threaten to droop closed with each step.

Ugh, last night’s couple hours of sleep were really not enough. Really, I should try to find some sort of Skill to help with…

He frowned, a memory from the previous night coming back to him.

Wait, didn’t I unlock something like that?

Looking into his Status, he found exactly the Skill he’d been thinking about, unlocked and promptly forgotten about by his severely sleep-deprived self.

[Sleep Deprivation - Cost: 10 Skill Points

Increases the amount of time you can operate at peak capacity without sleeping by 25%, plus an additional 2.5% for each Rank in this Skill, plus an additional 10% for each 25 points you have in the Endurance Stat.]

Oh, that’s actually pretty good. Shit, that’s actually really good!

At max Rank, it’d increase the amount of time he could stay awake by fifty percent, which was already solid, but really, the Skill alone wasn’t what he was so excited about. It was the second part of the description, which also increased the amount of time he could stay awake more and more as his Endurance Stat increased.

More Endurance already helped a person operate without sleep by a relatively small margin, but this Skill would increase that effect by leaps and bounds. Currently at just Level six, Zeth already had twenty-four Endurance—one off from hitting that first ten percent bonus increase. He could hardly imagine how useful that Skill would end up being once his Level started pushing into the double digits. Going entire days without needing to worry about sleep? It sounded amazing.

And all that at just a ten Skill Point cost. It was effectively free, once he Ranked it up.

Though, that was also likely where a more hidden cost would come into play. In order to Rank the Skill up, he’d have to continue doing what he did to unlock it in the first place—go so long without sleeping his body began to shut down. Sounded pretty miserable.

Still, could he really turn down so much extra time being handed to him practically for free?

Right now, though, he wouldn’t be taking it. Not just because, with only four Skill Points, he couldn’t afford it, but also because he was currently saving up for the seventeen-cost Otherworldly Excellence. It’d definitely take quite a while to Rank Sleep Deprivation up, and while it would eventually end up free, he didn’t want to wait that long before he could finally afford such a devastatingly powerful Skill as one which gave him so many free Stats every single time he Leveled Up.

In the end, as always, it simply came down to time. He needed more time to practice—more time to Rank up his Skills and earn more Points. And that meant getting this job so he could start using it as an excuse.

So, as he rounded a corner and the tavern came into view, he marched up to it and swung the door open. Sure enough, he spotted the woman with her neat black hair from across the room, sitting alone at a circular four-person table.

He walked up to her. “Excuse me.”

“Hm?” she looked up at him. “Oh! You’re that boy who kept bothering me.”

“Uh, right. You said you’d be willing to meet me here to discuss that business proposal?”

“Did I?”

“...You did.”

“Huh.” She sighed. “Okay, go ahead.”

“...Right, so,” he took a seat across from her as he spoke, “I was thinking, you’re likely busy moving inventory around to keep your cart stocked. So, as a physically capable guy, I thought I could help with—”

“Nope, not interested.”

Zeth blinked. “Are you sure? Think of the time you’d be able to save if you just had me do all that stuff instead of—”

“Not interested. Goodbye.”

“I’d at least ask you to hear out my full proposal. I won’t charge much, and I can do a lot more than just—”

“Goodbye! I’m busy, I don’t want to talk to you, goodbye!”

He sighed. Seriously, all that for her to cut him off halfway through his sentences and force him out? “C’mon, can’t you think of something I can do? I’m gonna be fully honest with you here, I’m a little desperate.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ve got a completely functioning setup here. I sell things, my bodyguards protect me and move stuff around if it needs to be moved around. No room for some random townie to interfere.”

“And you don’t think you could use one more bodyguard?”

She looked him up and down, eyes stopping on the several bandages covering his body. “You don’t seem like you’re very able.”

“Well, I don’t know, I just—”

“Nope! Bye!”

His mind raced, trying to think of anything he could say just to convince her to hear him out. “How do you know your bodyguards don’t need help? Haven’t you heard of the Blood Mage stuff that’s been going on? Jailbreaks? Demons being summoned? I even personally saw a fleshtaker destroy entire portions of this place’s residential district. I’m a local here; I know plenty about all this stuff that you have no idea of.”

She brought a hand to her chin, finally seeming to actually consider his offer. “Hm…”

“I can bring you information if it seems like it’ll be particularly dangerous. If you need to flee, I can take you through shortcuts I know will be safe, and I’m not too shabby of a fighter, either. Plus, like I said, I can offer physical labor if you ever need it. My price will be low, too.”

She stared at him for a moment with narrowed eyes, stroking her chin. “Hm…My answer’s gonna have to be…no.”

Zeth’s head fell into his hands. “Seriously?”

“I think I’m in perfectly capable hands as-is.”

“Alright, I guess.” He stood up and dejectedly turned to head out of the building. “Thanks for hearing me out, at least.”

“Wait. I said I don’t need your assistance. I didn’t say there was nobody else who did.”

He turned back around to look at her. “What?”

“I’ve got some bodyguards who might be looking for help. Not in guarding me, of course, but they have a couple other projects they’re working on. Pay will have to come from them, but if they want help, maybe you can offer it.”

“Uh, yeah, that’d be great,” Zeth said. “What projects?”

“I don’t pay attention to that sort of thing. Let me go get them and they can tell you. They should be just outside.” With that, she stood and walked out of the tavern, leaving Zeth sitting alone at the table.

For a minute, he wondered if this was just her way of escaping the conversation and she was already halfway across town, but eventually she returned, walking right back through the door and up to Zeth.

She pointed at him, looking back at a group of three people who walked in behind her. “He’s right there.”

With that, she stood aside and let them approach him. And as they came fully into Zeth’s view, he felt his chest tighten and his heart instantly start pounding five times as hard.

He’d seen their faces before. He’d seen their armor and weapons. The woman in front wore shining silver plate armor, impossible to confuse with anyone else, and had a greathammer on her back—a weapon meant to be held with two hands, but he knew she wielded it with one. And the two magic users behind her wore their familiar robes, each one holding a staff in his hands.

They were the exact same trio who had chased him off into the forest back when he’d broken the thralls out of jail. The ones who had been able to actually harm his summoned demon. And the ones who seemed to be more eager than anyone else to kill him.

As he stared at them, the woman in front narrowed her eyes. Had she recognized him already?

“Hi there,” she said, sitting opposite Zeth at the table. The other two men sat as well.

He gripped the wooden surface with white knuckles, preparing to run at the slightest provocation. “Hi.”

“So,” she said. “Let’s talk.”