The Self-Cultivation of a Little Demon

With his feet stepping on the scorching ground, Roy carried a rabbit-sized Strange Creature over his shoulder as he ran, carefully surveying his surroundings.

Moving through the pitch-black forest, he cautiously avoided the hanging branches of those twisted and ferocious trees. These trees were all Demon Trees. Once their drooping branches touched a living creature, they would immediately coil around it in a frenzy and seize their prey.

Among the black trees were many patches of dense white spiderwebs. These were things he had to be even more careful around. Seeing such webs meant he had entered the Hunting Range of the Spider Demons.

A Strange Cry suddenly came from above the forest. Roy quickly threw himself to the ground, placed the Strange Creature he was carrying on his back, and lay perfectly still.

A massive Black Shadow swept over him. Fortunately, it did not seem to notice Roy lying on the ground and flew straight past.

Roy felt incredibly lucky. He had already been prepared to abandon his prey. If that Black Shadow had spotted him and dived down, it would definitely have snatched the prey on his back first...

After painstakingly avoiding all sorts of dangers, Roy finally arrived beneath a huge tree at the edge of the forest. The giant tree had long since died and rotted away, but there was a naturally formed Large Hole among its roots. It had become Roy's home.

After reaching the Tree Hole, Roy did not go inside immediately. Instead, he carefully inspected the camouflage he had left behind before departing. Only after confirming that it showed no signs of being disturbed did he push aside the rotten Branches and Leaves at the entrance and crawl inside with his prey.

Inside the cave, Roy put down the prey he had been carrying on his shoulder and finally let out a long breath.

He had been in this Underworld for over a week now, and he had finally adapted somewhat to life here. Although there were still many environments and species that posed great danger to him, he could avoid them as long as he remained cautious and observant.

Over the past week or so, Roy's greatest improvement had been learning how to hunt. It could not be helped—every living creature needed to eat to survive, and Roy was no exception. However, the prey he could catch at present was rather limited.

Besides demons, the Underworld was also home to many Demonic Creatures. They were equivalent to wild beasts in the Human World. But honestly, just judging by appearance, Roy found it difficult to tell Lower Demons apart from Demonic Creatures. From his observations, many Lower Demons acted mostly on Physical Instinct—hunting, killing, and destruction. Those behavioral traits showed little intelligence at all, making them no different from beastlike Demonic Creatures.

In other words, they were just stupid...

But being stupid did not mean they were easy to bully. In fact, the Demon Race was the ruler of this world. Even Lower Demons grew increasingly stronger as they advanced from Juvenile Form toward Adult Form, and their strength rose dramatically. If they survived long enough, they would gradually become beings at the top of the food chain.

If demons in Juvenile Form were merely Lower Bottom Tier, then Adult Forms would gradually rise to Lower Middle Tier, eventually becoming Mature Forms—the Lower Top Tier. Beyond that, if a demon's Demon Bloodline was not too mixed and was relatively pure, it might even have a chance to advance into a Middle Demon...

Roy did not know what Middle Demons were like, because he had not encountered any so far. He had always suspected that this Underworld had even deeper layers that could be accessed through certain entrances. However, Roy's exploration range was still limited, and he had yet to find any such entrances.

These were conclusions Roy had reached through observation and speculation. Even if there were some inaccuracies, he figured they could not be too far off...

Likewise, Roy's body had been growing during this time. His Body Size had become slightly sturdier, and he had grown noticeably taller. Although he had yet to exceed 1.2 meters, the attributes displayed on the System Interface showed that his strength had increased by 2 points, his speed by 1 point, and his demonic energy had not increased. Vitality had risen the fastest, increasing by a full 5 points to reach 18.

Strength, speed, and demonic energy were easy enough to understand, but Roy was somewhat confused by the vitality attribute. Based on what he had experienced over this period, he realized that vitality might refer to his life force.

And greater life force represented how much damage he could withstand, as well as how long it took him to recover from injuries...

Setting down the prey In Hand, Roy began preparing his dinner.

Roy did not know what to call the Strange Creature he had caught, but it was probably some kind of Demonic Creature—and a juvenile one at that. He had caught it after seeing it burrow out of the ground and attempt to climb a tree. As far as he remembered, only certain insects displayed similar behavior.

This juvenile Strange Creature looked like a plump bug, yet it had four Legs resembling Claws, like an ant without Mandibles. But there was a Large Hole in its head, made by Roy's gun.

Roy had not upgraded the revolver In Hand. He had merely spent some time filling in the Details of its Gun Body. By now, the revolver looked very similar to the Colt Python Revolver he remembered seeing before. After modifying the Gun Body lines and making the barrel straight, Roy discovered that he could maintain a certain degree of accuracy even when firing from farther away, Instead of only daring to fire at Close Range like he had back when it had the Five Mao Effect...

As for why he did not continue upgrading this weapon, Roy had realized that it was not worth it!

During this period, Roy had encountered several Lower Demons in Adult Form. Although he had only seen them from afar, he discovered that these adult demons had greatly improved defenses. In particular, he had seen an Insectoid Lower Demon whose Body Surface was covered in a Chitinous Shell that gleamed with a Metallic Feel. From Visual Estimation alone, Roy felt that bullets would have a hard time achieving Penetration against such a shell.

Unless Roy was willing to Spend a Lot of Money and Consume Soul to add attributes such as [Armor Piercing] and [Penetration] to the gun, relying on a weapon like this alone would get him killed horribly when he encountered such a Defensive Demon.

Once he realized that simple External Force Weapons would become increasingly limited in usefulness, Roy began changing his approach and considered attempting Body Modification.

True strength came from strengthening oneself. This was especially true for creatures like demons. But Roy was still some time away from reaching Adult Form. According to the system's evaluation of him, Lower Top Tier was probably the limit he could reach in this life. Advancement had nothing to do with him, because his Demon Bloodline was simply too mixed. Not just him—even most egg-born Little Demons could reach no higher than Lower Top Tier.

But with the system's existence, Roy now had another choice.

Roy could actually draw and use souls to exchange for Human Food such as Braised Beef or Dongpo Pork Knuckle, Instead of Taking Risks by hunting like he did now. Yet he still did it without hesitation, because he was currently trying to Accumulate Souls. His upcoming plan for Body Modification required a large number of souls.

Demonic Creatures that were hunted also had souls, but their quality was low. The quality of a soul seemed linked to the intelligence its species possessed while alive. The higher its intelligence and the richer its emotions, the higher the quality of the soul it formed after death, and the more soul value it contained. The souls Roy could obtain now were all relatively inferior, so if quality was lacking, he could only Make Up with Quantity.

Over the past week or so, Roy had caught four prey and obtained four Soul Light Orbs. They were all much smaller than the one he had gotten from the Four-Eyed Little Devil, but even so, Roy felt they should be enough.

Suppressing his Psychological Discomfort, Roy ate the Bug Monster. He did not dare Make Fire to cook it, because he worried that the smell of cooked food would attract powerful enemies. The Bloody Smell, on the other hand, was not something he had to worry too much about, because the forest was full of it...

Before he had the means for Self-Protection, he had to be a coward when it was time to be one...

Once the hunger in his stomach had faded, Roy summoned the System Interface and began his first Body Modification.