CHAPTER 32: LOOKING FOR A SPECIFIC SKILL

The following days were very important for Damian. He had to focus and try his best to find something very specific: a way to travel long distances quickly.

For that, he would need some demon ability focused on rapid movement.

This time, he didn’t want to ask Leo for a piece of skin from any of his high-ranking demon friends. He had done that before, and he didn’t want to be in debt to Leo.

If he kept asking for things, Leo would get suspicious—and might demand more from him in the future. That was the last thing Damian wanted.

So, to get the ability he wanted, Damian had to leave the city and go on an adventure. Staying inside the city fighting demons wasn’t a good idea. What if he ran into someone who knew him? Or worse, if he crossed paths with Lion Beast on the streets?

That would be fatal. The best thing was to get away from the city and look for demons in the forests, just like he had done before.

Of course, Damian wasn’t going in completely blind. Before leaving, he did some research online, searching for information about demons known for their impressive speed.

There were a few demons that had been spotted a few times in the region but hadn’t been killed by the hunters precisely because of their ways of escaping.

One of those demons caught Damian’s attention. Apparently, it was a small demon, only about one meter tall. A kind of parasitic orb with arms and legs, and its body was a giant eye with two wings.

What was most impressive about this creature was its teleportation ability. The teleport distance was reasonably long. No one knew exactly how far because the creature had never been caught by the hunters.

Damian noticed in his research that a recent attack—about two weeks ago—involved this creature. Someone had died while fishing near a river in the forest surrounding the city.

The hunters found the demon, but it teleported away and vanished. No matter how hard they tried, it was impossible to track it down.

Damian wasn’t confident he’d find that demon, but he wanted to try. He had already noticed that, thanks to his Demon Eye, he could see more than most other hunters—so maybe, just maybe, he’d actually be able to track that demon down.

So, Damian called a driver through a ride app and headed out of the city, stopping at the roadside near the river where the person had been attacked.

Most of the demon’s attacks had happened in that area, so it wasn’t hard to assume it lived nearby.

As usual, the driver found it a bit odd that Damian wanted to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere, but since he was paying, the driver had no choice but to accept and not get involved in whatever Damian was doing.

After that, Damian entered the forest. He searched for the river where people had often been attacked. Because of those incidents, the area—once a popular fishing spot—was now abandoned.

No one had the courage to go there anymore. Only a few people still visited from time to time, hoping they’d get lucky and avoid being attacked. Some even went on dares—and ended up dying because of it.

As soon as he arrived, Damian activated his Demon Eye. His left eye turned red, taking on a bizarre, demonic appearance.

With that, his vision sharpened significantly. Since the place was basically deserted, Damian knew that any trace of mana he found out there would almost certainly belong to a demon.

And so, Damian’s hunt began. He walked slowly through the forest, careful not to make any unnecessary noise, and stayed alert for any movement around him.

His main focus was tracking mana traces—more specifically, demonic energy—left behind by the demons that frequented the area.

The demon he was looking for wasn’t the only one around, obviously, so Damian would have to put in some work to find his actual target.

It was only after about fifteen minutes of walking that he finally spotted the first trace of mana. It was near the river. Actually, it was coming from inside the river.

"There’s a demon in the water," Damian thought.

He couldn’t tell how strong it was just from that trace of mana, but he decided to take the risk. He jumped into the river!

As soon as he was underwater, he saw the demon lurking there. It looked like some kind of humanoid mixed with a fish, with multiple legs and four arms. Its skin was bluish, and its teeth were sharp like a shark’s.

But the one most surprised by the encounter wasn’t Damian—it was the demon! It hadn’t sensed any aura nearby—Damian could hide everything—so to it, it was as if Damian had just appeared out of nowhere.

Damian grabbed the creature by the neck, then used the strength in his legs to push off the riverbed and launch them both out of the water. It all happened fast.

After boosting his stats and reaching D-rank power, he was feeling pretty strong.

"Can we talk for a second?" Damian asked.

Shocked, the demon replied, "How the hell can you talk to me? Are you a high-ranking demon?"

Most high-ranking demons could speak the human language to communicate, since hardly any humans understood the demon tongue.

But to speak with weaker demons, you had to use the demon language—something Damian was fluent in.

"Can you tell me where the demon that looks like an eye is? The one that attacks people around here? Tell me what you know, or you die today."

Damian was cold and direct. Like any creature, the demon wanted to preserve its life at all costs.

"All I know is he usually stays near the waterfall, further up the river."

That information was already useful. Damian pressed the demon for more details and to make sure he was telling the truth about the location. Everything pointed to him being honest.

Damian let the demon go. He saw no reason to waste his energy attacking a creature that wasn’t his target. He kept following the river.

After walking for another ten minutes, he started to hear the sound of the waterfall.

"I’m getting close," he thought.

But how exactly was he going to catch that demon? If the eye used its teleportation ability, it would be really hard to find it again.

His only advantage was that he had no scent or aura thanks to his new ability. That would allow him to get very close to the demon—assuming it didn’t see him.

As soon as he spotted the waterfall, Damian moved even more slowly than before, trying to use the foliage to hide his body.

He looked around, searching for the demon. At first, he didn’t see anything, but he did notice a strong concentration of mana near the waterfall.

It looked like the mana trail was leading behind the falls.

"Is it hiding behind the waterfall?" Damian wondered.

A cave behind a waterfall wasn’t all that far-fetched. But if that were the case, getting there without being seen would be a bit tricky.