The Returning Old Demon

Roy had originally intended to stay here and wait to see when that old demon would return. To his surprise, once he started waiting, he ended up waiting a full seven days.

Of course, seven days was only an estimate. Roy could not be sure exactly how long it had been; he only knew that it had been quite a while.

During that time, Roy discovered that the altar did not activate only occasionally. On the contrary, it activated quite frequently!

Before long, the Magic Array on the altar would emit a faint glow, followed by all kinds of scents drifting through the Void.

After seeing this happen many times, Roy gradually understood. Every time the Magic Array activated, someone was communicating with the Abyssal Demon World and offering sacrifices in an attempt to summon demons. However, sacrifices like the first one, high-quality souls, were quite rare. Most of the sacrificial scents coming through the Void were filled with a bloody smell.

Roy guessed that these summoners were using sacrifices such as blood or internal organs, which was why this happened.

Yet although the bloody smell could attract demons, it was far less appealing to them than souls. After all, demons in the Abyssal Demon World hunted Blood Food as well; they had smelled enough blood already.

Therefore, when summoners offered such sacrifices, they generally could not attract Powerful Demons. Only Demonic Creatures or Weaker Demons would come—and only if the bloody smell was strong enough. If it was not sufficiently strong, even those Demonic Creatures would dismiss it with contempt, causing the Magic Array to quickly dim after running for a while.

That meant the summoning had failed...

Aside from sacrifices being unattractive, there was also the possibility that the Magic Array remained active for too short a time. The scent of the offering had barely spread before it was cut off when the Magic Array closed. During his observations, Roy found that such failed summonings were quite common.

If maintaining a communication Magic Array also required magic power, then this was likely because the summoner could not sustain their magic power...

This made Roy vaguely realize something: most people trying to summon demons were probably amateurs! Not only was their magic power weak, but they did not even really understand what demons wanted!

Of course, perhaps the summoners could not entirely be blamed. Even amateurs sometimes successfully summoned demons. At the very least, during Roy's watch, a total of Twelve Demonic Creatures and Three Little Demons had been lured into the Magic Array and successfully teleported away. Those three Little Demons might even have been from the same batch that hatched alongside Roy. Roy had used the T-Virus to skip the lengthy Growth Stage and enter the Mature Form ahead of time, but the other Little Demons could not do that. They had to grow normally.

However, Little Demons usually found hunting difficult during their Growth Stage and struggled greatly to survive. That was why Little Demons wandered here, drawn by the bloody smell and responded to the summons. The Demonic Creatures attracted here were the same. And it was precisely because weak demons and Demonic Creatures occasionally responded to summons that demon summoning came to have something called a "success rate"...

There was no need to mention the amateurs whose summons failed. But those amateur summoners who succeeded by luck might think they had mastered the trick of summoning after that one success, record their methods, and pass them down. As a result, later generations' understanding of demon summoning became increasingly distorted...

After all, there could not possibly be many people who truly understood the Abyssal Demon World.

Following that logic, the summoner who had used a High-Quality Soul to attract demons and had even made them fight each other to determine a victor was a true expert among Demon Summoners! Roy just did not know what kind of world that Demon Summoner came from...

While Roy waited, some of the Demonic Creatures and Little Demons that had been summoned away returned one after another. These returnees usually wore satisfied expressions, presumably because they had successfully enjoyed the sacrifices. But some looked utterly miserable. It was not uncommon for them to return covered in wounds, missing limbs. Those who had been injured had probably encountered powerful enemies. Though they had escaped back alive, injuries like theirs meant they likely would not survive long in the Abyssal Demon World. They would soon become preferred prey for other demons and Demonic Creatures...

Roy Couldn't Help killing two injured Lesser Little Demons that had returned. Yet the souls he harvested were displayed in the system as "Incomplete Low-level Soul"!

This indicated that these demons might have lost part of their souls because of their injuries during the summoning process!

What exactly was going on? Roy secretly counted himself lucky that he had not rashly stepped into that Magic Array. This was something he had never anticipated.

He decided to wait and see when the old demon returned. Like Alanya, that old demon had mastered Demonic Language and could communicate. Moreover, judging by the proficient manner in which he had entered the Magic Array, he had probably responded to summons more than once. He definitely knew what was going on with Demon Summoning.

As for how he would communicate with this old demon, he could only take it step by step.

On the seventh day, black dots appeared in the Magic Array without warning. They rapidly expanded, forming a portal, and then a massive figure appeared within the Magic Array.

The old demon finally appeared and returned. But the instant he appeared, his massive body toppled headfirst into the Magic Array. He hit the ground with a loud noise, and Volcanic Ash from the Volcanic Inner Wall fell down amid the tremendous vibrations.

The old demon's condition looked utterly miserable. It was the worst situation Roy had seen during this time!

One of his demon horns had broken off completely. Flowing purple blood had blurred his entire face. The Stone Hammer he had originally held was nowhere to be seen, presumably lost somewhere. His tail had also been severed. Thick keratin scales across his entire body were covered with hundreds of wounds, large and small. Most Serious of all was a two-meter-long wound across his abdomen, as though someone had directly disemboweled him with a sharp weapon. Even his internal organs had spilled out, forming a huge pile on the ground...

Roy was so startled by the old demon's wretched state that he jumped. He had suffered such fatal injuries, yet he had actually made it back alive!?

Roy was certain that the old demon had experienced a fierce battle after being summoned away. Yet those injuries Facilitated Roy's Communication with him. Roy climbed down from the Volcanic Inner Wall and arrived on the altar.

In fact, while Roy was climbing down, the old demon had already struggled out of the Altar's Magic Array. He probably thought that if he did not crawl out quickly, someone might summon demons again and summon him away while he was still inside the array. Already injured like this, if he was summoned away again, he would truly be beyond saving...

After crawling out of the Magic Array's range, he naturally Sensed Roy Approaching him at once. Though the old demon's face was covered in blood, he still fiercely let out a threatening hiss at Roy.

He thought Roy was here to pick up an opportunity, so naturally he could not look favorably upon Roy.

Yet despite his ferocity, a tremor crept into his roar, exposing his inner unease.

Roy naturally heard it, so he did not waste any words. As soon as he approached, he spoke to him in Demonic Language. "Answer... my... questions, or... you die!"

There were few demons Roy could communicate with, so his Demonic Language was not yet proficient. However, the advantage of this Soul Language was that it allowed the other party to quickly understand what he meant.

As he spoke, Roy dragged his claws across the hard stone slabs beneath him. Though he failed to leave scratches, the grating sound threw up sparks from the stone. In this way, he demonstrated that he currently had the ability to kill the old demon with ease.

Looking at Roy's incredibly strong muscles and sharp claws, even though Roy was actually only one-quarter the old demon's height, the old demon was seriously injured and lying down! Thus, the old demon quickly compromised and replied to Roy in Demonic Language, "What do you want to ask?"