Chapter 7 Demon Slayer

[The Host slayed 50 Lesser Demons within the first hour of the Arcane Apocalypse. Achievement『Demon Slayer』has been attained.

[+25 Arcanum has been rewarded!]

Placing his hands on his knees, Liam took a moment to catch his breath and survey his surroundings to assess if there were more Shedim to kill.

Fortunately, that was not the case. His Arcane Power had been drained and the active effect of his Soultrait had worn off as well. Liam's eyes changed back to the bright purple hue and it didn't look like he had a galaxy sealed in his eyes anymore. The hazy hue around his eyes had also dispersed, leaving behind a dead-tired Halfling.

Liam could barely hold the two longswords that he had used to increase his kill count against the small army of Shedim.

Their corpses were littered all over the cliff and they created a trail down to the basalt underground tower. Its massive and ancient gates were still wide open, and Liam entered without any hesitation.

The gloomy atmosphere within the tower was enough to make the hair stand on the back of his neck but Liam was too exhausted to bother about any of that. He took a good look around the ground floor of the underground tower and frowned lightly.

"I didn't expect much…but there is literally nothing of value inside…" He cursed while taking a quick glance at his status screen.

[Arcanium: 73.75]

The achievement rewarded him a considerable amount of Arcanium which was almost as much as he had obtained from the number of Shedims he killed.

Unfortunately, none of that was comparable to the fortune he could obtain from the Shedims' bodies and their steel weapons. Other races would love to pay a small fortune to get their hands on the corpses of Lesser Demons. They would research them, and dissect their bodies in order to find out the most efficient and brutal ways to kill them and what body parts were useful to create Artifacts, potions, and other useful goods.

"If only I had a shop…" Liam grumbled as he had no way to carry the Shedim corpses around. He couldn't even carry a multitude of weapons around because the Arcane Apocalypse had just started and his movements had to be smooth and unrestricted. Carrying a dozen weapons around, no matter how precious or useful, would just kill him instead of saving his life!

That was why he required a Storage Artifact, or a means to sell his war spoils immediately. The former was not cost-efficient right now while the latter was not easy to achieve.

After all, permanent shops were extremely expensive. Even small shops were not easy to build, which Liam clearly realized upon looking at the price for Shop Certificates.

[Temporary Shop Certificate(Lowest-5 Days) – 1000 Arcanium]

"Arcane Shop, can I get another loan?" Liam asked in-between two heavy breaths, not expecting to hear a pleasant answer. Unexpectedly, he received a slap on his face as the Arcane System answered only moments later.

[Analysis completed…Active Loan Contract detected…secondary loan interest rate has been calculated.]

[The Host's secondary loan interest rate has been finalized at a compound interest rate of 50% a day. Tip: Pay back your debt to obtain a better interest rate!]

"...Just tell me if you don't want to give me another loan…" Liam spat vengefully at the Arcane system, but then fell silent. It was not as if he excepted a miracle from the Arcane System.

'It guessed what I want to do and levied such a high-interest rate so as to not get abused…well, that's only logical, I guess.'

He didn't curse the system anymore and instead chose to take a look at the first underground floor of the tower. Liam didn't feel comfortable not knowing what kind of opponents might be walking up the staircase by now.

And, just a short peek showed him a few Lesser Demons that caused his confidence to shatter immediately.

The biggest problem he saw after craning his neck further down below was a larger Shedim. It was a bulky Shedim without too many rotten spots. Its head look like the head of a snake and it had a long neck as well.

'A Mutated Elite Shedim? Well…that's definitely too much for me to handle with those ridiculous stats…' Liam muttered. He was prideful but not delusional, not yet at least.

The Mutated Elite Shedim might not have been at the 1st Circle but its stats were certainly higher than Liam's. That was not exactly hard, considering that the average human was supposed to have average stats between [E] and [F]. As for unranked Devils, even Lesser Devils would have stats at [B], and there was not even the need to start talking about the strength of his Mother and siblings.

Right from the moment they were born, their power was already incomparably higher than the average Lesser Devil, let alone humans.

They couldn't even enter Haltan before the landmass of the planet had been reinforced drastically to sustain their might simply because they were too strong.

That was a good thing because it would take quite a while until the Arcane Power would slowly seep into Haltan and reawaken it completely. Liam was happy about it. He would finally receive the much-needed freedom from his family, those annoying folks who didn't even feel like killing him because they were too disgusted with his powers…

Liam shook his head and focused on resting. He accessed the Arcane Shop and searched for a bunch of things.

For a moment, he reconsidered increasing his Vitality and Stamina stat by using some Arcanium but that thought was quickly ignored. It was necessary for him to be ready to fight or run at any moment but it was not as if he was in immediate danger.

The sounds from the first underground floor were amplified as they bounced off the basalt walls used to construct the underground tower.

Liam considered that someone from the outside might attack them but it didn't really matter. In the worst-case scenario, he could use his Arcanium to tweak his stats and adjust to the opponents that might attack once they got wind of him.

He was more focused on the Arcane Shop where he got his hands on two items of which one was considered a limited edition.

One of the two items he purchased was a potion called [Fortune's Liquor], and it was a limited edition item with only 100 potions in the Arcane System's stock. As for the other item, it was a [Detoxification Bandaid], which was a bandaid that extracts toxins within the body to a certain extent.

The Bandaid was nothing special and it couldn't remove 1st Circle toxins, however, that was not necessary. He was glad that he could buy the Detoxification Bandaid for five Arcanium, which was a lot cheaper than the Fortune's Liquor which was priced at 25 Arcanium.

Liam's fortune was drastically reduced to 43.75 Arcanium but he was perfectly fine with that. In fact, he was overjoyed with the purchase he made because it would elevate his chances of victory drastically.

[『Fortune's Liquor』–Circleless Unique Potion–

Description: The Fortune's Liquor is a special liquor with 89% Arcane alcohol, Dragnal Flower Syrup, Blackwidow Bee Nectar, and 521 more ingredients. One droplet of the Fortune's Liquor is enough to increase a random stat by one sub-rank with the limit being [D+].

Remark: The effect of the Fortune's Liquor decreases subsequently after the first droplet until there won't be an effect anymore!]

The Vial of the Fortune's Liquor was not very large. However, there were more than 30 droplets of viscous liquid inside. That was pretty neat and definitely worth the 25 Arcanium he paid for the potion.

Increasing all of his stats from [G-] to [G] would have cost 3 Arcanium, which was not too expensive but it was only one rank nonetheless! The second increment from [G] to [G+] would cost 6 Arcanium and it would become even more expensive to artificially increase his stats afterward.

It was possible to increase his stats with hard work but that was not something Liam had time for right now. Thus, he unstoppered the vial and closed his eyes as he downed the viscous Fortune's Liquor down his throat.

The moment the liquid made its way down his throat, Liam had to clamp his mouth with his hands as a fierce, burning sensation swept over him. He nearly coughed up and spat out some of the precious liquid that he had swallowed hastily.

Once he was certain that his body wouldn't attempt to vomit everything, Liam carefully put the Detoxification Bandaid on his neck.

Afterward, he just endured and waited for a bunch of notifications to appear right in front of him.

[The Host's Stamina increased.]

[The Host's Will increased.]

[The Host's Vitality increased.]

[The Host's Arcane Power increased.]

[The Host's Agility increased.]

[The Host's Strength increased.]